Preparation and physicochemical characterization of ghee and mūrcchita ghŗ̥ta

ABSTRACT

Background: Ghr¸ta murcchana _x005F_x005F_x0001_ is a process of pre-treatment recommended in Ayurveda to purify gheebefore it can be used for siddha ghr¸ta which is claimed to improve the properties of the ghee in generaland that of the prepared siddha ghr¸ta.Objective: This work is aimed at studying the physiochemical properties of ghee and murcchita ghr¸ _x005F_x005F_x0001_ ta inorder to understand the impact of ghr¸ta murcchana _x005F_x005F_x0001_ process.Materials and methods: Ghee and murcchita ghr¸ _x005F_x005F_x0001_ ta were prepared from the milk of local Pahadi, Jersey andHolstein cows. The samples were characterized by FTIR spectroscopy, differential scanning calorimetryand free fatty acid measurements.Results: Among the samples studied, the Holstein cow ghee was found to contain the least amount offree acid (1.34%) whereas ghr¸ta murcchana _x005F_x005F_x0001_ process led to further decrease in the free acid contentpolymorphism was observed in the samples as evidenced by multiple melting points. In most cases,murcchita ghr¸ _x005F_x005F_x0001_ ta was found to contain less solid fat than the corresponding ghee implying that the highmelting compound was converted to low melting one during the process.Conclusion: The observed lowering of free fatty acid and solid fat contents in the ghee samples mayprovide a possible validation to the performance enhancement of the ghr¸ta murcchana _x005F_x005F_x0001_ process.