Introduction

North-Eastern (NE) states of India (Fig. 1) occupy 8% of the total geographical area of the country and are inhabited by 3.76% of the population.¹ The region is culturally diverse and inhabited by more than 200 tribes out of total 635 tribal groups recorded in India.¹ Most of the tribes have their distinct languages, ethnic foods and cultures.^1,2 Their ethnic alcoholic beverages are parts not only of their food habits but also inseparably knitted with cultural practices.^3-7 Although the alcoholic beverages of different ethnic groups are known by different names, these are all prepared from rice, and also there are some commonalities in the methods of preparation. More or less, the preparation method for all types of rice beers is almost same. Firstly, rice (different rice varieties are used by different communities) is cooked and spread to cool down over a bamboo mat. Now, the starter culture or the yeast cake (known by different names among different communities) is powered by mortar and pestle, and mixed with the cool cooked rice in a ratio of approximately 1:50 (w/w). The ratio may slightly differ among different communities. The whole mixture is then put into a pot (usually an earthen pot is used) of appropriate size and shape. Water is added, mouth of the pot is closed, and the pot is left in a shady place for a few days to allow fermentation to happen. After 7-8 days of fermentation, whole mixture is filtered with cotton cloth. The filtrate is known as rice beer. The main difference in this method by different communities is observed in the quality of rice and the plant materials used, thus imparting differences in their qualities such as unique taste, smell, nutritional and therapeutic values etc. All the tribes are very conscious about the use of medicinal plants in the preparation step of the starter cakes which provide the necessary enzymes to make the fermentation of rice happen to implant the taste and characteristic flavor of the alcoholic beverages.^4,8,10,12  Apart from the use of ingredients, the tribes follow their traditional rituals while preparing the starter cakes and the beverages.^4,5,6 The ethnic beverages are consumed by the communities on the daily basis, and are considered good for health as well as believed to provide energy to work.^4,8,10 Use of ethnic beverages is believed to prevent kidney stone, body and headache, insomnia, diarrhea, urinary problems, etc.^3,5,8,12 It is well-established that high level of alcohol consumption is injurious to health, especially it leads to liver cirrhosis, loss of productivity, family breakdown, accidental death etc.⁹ Here, we are reporting the biochemical indices of the ethnic alcoholic beverages of North-East India and their consumption pattern.

Figure 1: The map of the north-eastern states of India with their capitals.  Click here to view Figure

Assam

Assam is the gateway to the North-East of India.¹ The major part of it is inhabited by at least 18 different tribes, some of which are listed in Table 1.¹ Among the different ethnic groups such as Bodos, Ahoms, Tiwas (Lalung), Misings, Rabhas, Sonowal Kacharis, Deoris, Adivasis, Mech Kacharis, Karbis, Bhutias, Nepalis etc., Bodos are the single largest ethnic tribal community and they belong to a still larger ethnic group known as Kacharis.¹ All these tribes are known for their traditional alcoholic beverages and all of them, except Nepalese use rice grain along with medicinal plants as the main ingredients.²¹ Nepalese produce their alcoholic beverage, Chaang using millet, barley, rice, and yeast along with medicinal herbs.²¹ Ananas comosus, Plumbago zeylanica, Artocarpus heterophyllus, Capsicum annuum, Oryza sativa, Piper nigrum, Saccharum officinarum, Ochthochloa coracana, Plumbago indica, Cinnamomum tamala, Centella asiatica are some of the medicinal herbs which are used to prepare the starter culture by different indigenous tribes of Assam.^{6,8,4,17,18,20,34} Complete biochemical analysis of most of the traditional alcoholic beverages in Assam is hitherto unreported. Reports of partial biochemical analyses of a few traditional alcoholic beverages such as jou of Bodos, xaj by Ahoms, sujen by Deoris, apong by Misings are reported by Deka et al.^{6,10,11,12,13} Available biochemical analyses of some of the traditional alcoholic beverages are recorded in Table 2.

Table 1: Traditional alcoholic beverages by different ethnic groups of Assam

Table 2: Biochemical analyses of some of the traditional alcoholic beverages of Assam

*NA: Not Available

Arunachal Pradesh

Arunachal Pradesh is known as the land of the Dawn-lit Mountains of India.¹ In land coverage, it is the largest north-eastern state but thinly populated.¹ As per the census of 2011, it has 13.83 Lakh population.¹ Adis are the major tribe of this state and it is divided to 15 sub-tribes such as Ashing, Bori, Karko, Milang, Padam, Pangi, Ramo, Tangam, Bokar, Gallong, Komkar, Minyong, Pailibo, Pasi and Shimon.^{1,2,3,4,42,43,71} Almost all the tribes are known for their homemade alcoholic beverage (Table 3), but till now only few of them are reported. Medicinal plants like Plumbago zeylanica, Artocarpus heterophyllus, Capsicum annuum, Saccharum officinarum, Dennstaedtia scabra, Ochthochloa coracana, Plumbago indica, Cinnamomum tamala, Scoparia dulcis, Hydrocotyle sibthorpioides, Piper betel, Cyclosorus dentatus are some of plants used by Arunachali tribes to prepare starter cultures.^{86,87,88,89,93} Rice and medicinal herbs are the main ingredients of the starter culture. Some of the tribes of this state prepare millet based fermented beverage which is known as Modua Apong.⁴² Biochemical analyses of Arunachali traditional alcoholic beverages are scarcely reported (Table 4).

Table 3: Traditional alcoholic beverages of Arunachali tribes

*NA: Not Available

Table 4: Reported biochemical analyses of Arunachali traditional alcoholic beverages

Manipur

The state of Manipur consists of Imphal Valley surrounded by hills.¹ Almost all the tribes living there have unique style of culture and food habit.^{2,3,62,78,79,80} Sekmai and Atingba Yu are two popular traditional alcoholic beverages in Manipur.^{15,61,66,73,74,80, 81} Atingba Yu is specially prepared from grapes, the other from rice and medicinal plants^{15,66,73,74,80,81} Kukis are an important major tribe of Manipur and they prepare alcoholic beverages which is akin to the Japanese Sake Chong Ju and Korean Sake Tak Ju.^74,80 Naga tribes residing in Manipur prepare banana wine by fermenting banana in a closed container with little water.^{2,48,54,62,74,75,76,79} Though several types of rice beer are known in Manipur (Table 5), virtually none of them is analyzed fully.

Table 5: Traditional alcoholic beverages in the state of Manipur

*NA: Not Available

Meghalaya

Meghalaya, the state known as the abode of clouds is inhabited by three major tribes, namely Khasis, Pnar (Jayantia) and Achiks (Garos).^1. Khasi is a generic term that includes Khynriam, Pnar, Bhoi, War, Lyngngam and Diko people.^3,15,66 Rice is the staple food for all the tribes and they use rice to prepare their traditional alcoholic beverages (Table 6) using a starter culture which is prepared by mixing rice with medicinal plants like Hydrocotyle sibthorpioides, Plumbago zeylanica, Saccharum officinarum, Dennstaedtia scabra, Plumbago indica, Cinnamomum tamala, Ochthochloa coracana, Scoparia dulcis, Piper betel, Cyclosorus dentatus, Capsicum annuum, Artocarpus heterophyllus, Sonbarial, Phirphiria pat, Tezmuri, Senikuthi, Gorobchoi, etc.^{2,3,4,15,39,40,41,53,66,84,95} Reported biochemical analyses are shown in Table 7.

Table 6: Traditional alcoholic beverages in the state of Meghalaya

*NA: Not Available

Table 7: Reported biochemical analyses of Meghalaya traditional alcoholic beverages

*NA: Not Available

*a means the degree of redness (+) and greenness (-)

Mizoram

Known as the land of blue mountains, the state of Mizoram has the highest concentration of tribal people among all the states of India.¹ Mizos and Nepalis are the two major tribes that reside in the state.^1,2,66,70 Mizo’s traditional alcoholic beverage, Zawlaidi is prepared from grapes and medicinal plants, and it is akin to the Japanese sake.⁷⁰ Traditional alcoholic beverages of Mizoram are listed in Table 8 and no biochemical analysis been available.

Table 8: Traditional alcoholic beverages in Mizoram

*NA: Not Available

Nagaland

Known as the land of festivals, the state of Nagaland is inhabited by many tribes and sub-tribes, as many as not less than 16 tribes such as Sumi, Mao Naga, Dimasha, Zeme Naga.¹ Most of the tribes are unique and have distinct characteristics in terms of language, customs and attires.¹ Rice is the staple food of Nagaland tribes and they prepare their traditional alcoholic beverages from rice using a starter culture prepared by mixing rice with medicinal herbs like Plumbago zeylanica, Artocarpus heterophyllus, Capsicum annuum, Saccharum officinarum, Dennstaedtia scabra, Ochthochloa coracana, Plumbago indica, Cinnamomum tamala, Scoparia dulcis, Hydrocotyle sibthorpioides, Piper betel, Cyclosorus dentatus, Durun, Kapou dhekia, Belipoka, Bhimkol, Goropsoi, Pipoli, Titaphool, Banjaluk, Madhuriam, Bhunin komora, Bihlongoni, Senikuthi, Gorobchoi, Bhekuri tita etc^{.4,5,15,16,45,66,84} Judima is a very popular alcoholic beverage prepared by Dimasha tribes of Nagaland.^4,5 It has very strong alcoholic power.⁵ As per reported data, Judima contains highest percentage of alcohol i.e.,16 v/v% which is almost 4 times higher as compared to Zutho of Angami and Litchumsu of Ao tribe.^{5,16,45,58,94} Traditional alcoholic beverages of Nagaland are shown in Table 9, and reported biochemical data in Table 10.

Table 9: Traditional alcoholic beverages of Nagaland

*NA: Not Available

Table 10: Biochemical Analysis of the traditional alcoholic beverages of Nagaland

*NA: Not Available

*L indicates the degree of lightness or darkness (L=0 means perfect black & L=100 means most perfect white)

*a means the degree of redness (+) and greenness (-)

*b indicates degree of yellowness (+) and blueness (-)

Tripura

Tripura is a land of diversity, and inhabited by many tribal communities among which Tripuri, Santhal, Jamatia, Debbarma, Molsom, Santhal are the major tribal communities.¹ Their staple food is rice, and they prepare their own alcoholic beverages using a starter culture which is prepared by mixing grinded rice with medicinal plants.^3,4,49,67 Plumbago zeylanica, Artocarpus heterophyllus, Capsicum annuum, Saccharum officinarum, Dennstaedtia scabra, Ochthochloa coracana, Plumbago indica, Cinnamomum tamala, Scoparia dulcis, Hydrocotyle sibthorpioides are some of the medicinal plants used by the tribes of Tripura.^{3,4,15,49,67,84} Chuwaraak, a type of whiskey is prepared in Tripura by mixing rice, jackfruit, and pineapple with medicinal herbs.^3,49,67 All the alcoholic beverages prepared in Tripura (Table 11) have a high level of alcohol content and among them, Chuwak prepared by Jamatia tribe records the highest level of alcohol content (Table 12).^3,49,67

Table 11: Traditional alcoholic beverages of Tripura

*NA: Not Available

Table 12: Biochemical Analysis of the traditional alcoholic beverages of Tripura

*NA: Not Available

Comparison of biochemical parameters of various types of alcoholic beverages

Diverse types of alcoholic beverages have been reported from different tribal communities of north-eastern India by different researchers. There is further scope of research to analyze all the biochemical parameters. Each of beverages is associated with the preparation of a starter cake by mixing grinded rice with some medicinal plants.^3,4,8 More or less, all types of beer possess therapeutic values. Depending upon the method of preparation, the storage time, and the starter culture, each of the beverages has different biochemical indices. Among the reported alcoholic beverages from Assam, Bodo’s Jou has highest level of carbohydrate content and Bodo’s Jumai/Jougwran (distilled alcohol) has the highest level of ethanol content (Figure 2).^{3,5,12,14,15,16,33,56,66,85} From Arunachal Pradesh, Rakshi, the beverage by Miji tribe contains 13% ethanol but several other biochemical parameters are still unknown.³ In 2014, Deka et al. carried out research on Bodo’s Jou and they reported that percentage of ethanol content increased with the increase of fermentation period.¹² In 2015, J Arjun studied about Judima, Jumai, Horo, Poro respectively by Mising, Karbi, Dimasha and Bodo people, and reported that Jumai contained highest level of ethanol content.¹⁶ He made a comparison among the above-mentioned alcoholic beverages with Beer Kingfisher, Gin Blue Riband, Vodka White Mischief, Rum McDowell, Whisky McDowell etc. He reported that commercial liquor contains more alcohol but less carbohydrate than the alcoholic beverages of north-east India.¹⁶ In 2014, Bhuyan et al. analyzed nutritional properties of north-east beverages reporting that Hor by Karbi tribe of Assam was used as a medicine to cure pharyngitis and dysentery; Yu by Meitei women was used to cure weak heath conditions due to irregular menstruation cycle, loss of appetite, infertility factors etc.²⁹

Figure 2: Bar Diagram showing the ethanol content of different alcoholic beverages. Click here to view Figure

Study of biochemical indices with respect to time period

Some of the earlier researchers have studied how biochemical indices change with duration of fermentation. From their data, it is almost clear that at the initial stage carbohydrate content becomes highest.³⁵ As time passes, amount of carbohydrate goes on decreasing and with the same rate ethanol content increases due to increase in fermentation time, carbohydrate gets fermented to ethanol.³⁵ Fermentation cannot make any change on maltotetrose and higher polymers of glucose, only the six membered carbohydrates are fermented.³⁵   Therefore, maltotetrose and higher polymers of glucose are the main reasons of carbohydrate content in rice based alcoholic beverages.³⁵ As the level of carbohydrate is decreased and alcohol content is increased with the increase of fermentation period, it means that the storage technique for fermentation is scientifically validated.³⁵ The bar diagrams (Figure 3 and Figure 4) are represented to show the change in carbohydrate and ethanol contents in Jou samples with different fermentation period according to the information given by Deka et al.^12,35 Mishra et al. made a systematic analysis on the bio-functional properties and storage study of ‘Chubitchi’- a fermented rice beverage of Garo Hills, Meghalaya, and this is presented in Figure 5.⁴⁸

Figure 3: Bar Diagram showing carbohydrate content in Jou Samples35  Click here to view Figure

Figure 4: Bar Diagram showing ethanol content in Jou Samples35 Click here to view Figure

Figure 5: Bar diagram showing the biochemical parameters for Chubitchi Beer as reported by Mishra et al.48 Click here to view Figure

From the above bar diagram for Chubitchi beer, it is clear that colour goes on increasing up to 10 days; after 10 days it slowly decreases. Beer colour is generally due to presence of protein and sugar in the beer sample.^36,44 Again, the transparency/clarity order goes on decreasing with the increase of fermentation period. Flavor is very sharp within 10 days of fermentation. Alcohol content is found to be highest on the 20^th day of storage. It is clear from the data that all parameters will not run parallel with fermentation period. There is a sudden jump of most of the parameters with fermentation time. This means that the storage technique is not scientifically validated over time.

Consumption pattern and therapeutic use

Though rice-based beverages have lots of nutritional values, yet an excess of it is very harmful. Higher dose consumption of it may cause to violence, accidents, mental as well as other health problems, and also may cause diseases like infections, diabetes, arthritis, cardiovascular diseases, cancer, Alzheimer disease, etc.^9,46   Consumption of beverages is very common during the time of festivals, election time, ritual ceremonies etc.⁹ People consume it for various reasons such as to express happiness, and for various issues like family problem, financial problem, lack of employment, etc. Traditional alcoholic beverages of north-east India can be a potent source to earn livelihood as well as revenue source for government.  Alcohol consumption per capita per week (in mL) as of 2011-12 in north-eastern states is shown in Figure 6.⁹ There is a need to complete and report the biochemical analyses of all types of alcoholic beverages. Rice beer has some positive impacts on the health, which cannot be ignored. Therapeutic uses of some traditional rice based alcoholic beverages are discussed in Table 13.

Fig. 6: Bar Diagram showing alcohol consumption in north-eastern states (per capita per week, in mL) as reported by Choudhury et al.9  Click here to view Figure

Table 13: Therapeutic uses of rice-based alcoholic beverages

Conclusion

The present study reports the physicochemical parameters of different types of rice beers available in north-eastern states of India. Reported data have been analyzed, and a comparison among the different traditional alcoholic beverages has been presented. This report has revealed that there is wide scope of research on traditional alcoholic beverages of north-eastern states of India. Since there is high consumption of traditional alcoholic beverages among the different tribal communities of north-eastern states, it is essential that thorough scientific study on all unreported alcoholic beverages be carried out to reveal their potential health benefits or otherwise. Commercialization of traditional alcoholic beverages of north-eastern states of India is immense.

In the Indian sub-continent, seven north-eastern states including Assam are known for the rich heritage of traditional alcoholic beverages prepared from rice. To know more please rich this article which has cited as many as 97 references.

Acknowledgement

The author would like to thank, Department of Chemistry, Gauhati University, Guwahati, Assam, India. for their guidance and support to complete this article.

Conflict of Interest

 The authors declare no conflicting interests.

Funding Sources

The authors received no financial support for the research.

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