Trends in Biosciences 11(5), Print : ISSN 0974-8431, 565-567, 2018 REVIEW PAPER A Review on - Post Harvest Handling Practices of Tamarind (Tamarindus indica L.) Fruits BHAGWAT KUMAR*, S. PATEL AND N.K. MISHRA Department of Agricultural Processing and Food Engineering SV College of Agricultural Engineering &Technology & Research Station, Faculty of Agricultural Engineering, IGKV, Raipur, Chhatisgarh *email : bhagwatdtc@gmail.com ABSTRACT Tamarind (Tamarindus indica L.) is a fruit tree in the family of Fabaaceae under the genus Tamarindus. Tree found most of the tropical and subtropical country. India is the largest producer of tamarind in the world. The tamarind fruit comprises pulp, seed, shell, and fibre. It’s most valued part is pulp in Hindi known as phool Imli used for food, cultural, social, medicinal and income generation purposes. Storage of tamarind, for a long period is a problem. Appropriate handling practices played an important role in maintaining quality and extending shelf life. This review paper revealed that the handling practices like harvesting, drying, dehulling, defibering deseeding, packaging and storage of tamarind. Key words Tamarind pulp (phool Imli), Post harvest, Dehulling, Deseeding, Defibring and Storage. Tamarind popularly known as Imli is one of the auspicious, versetile tree in the Indian subcontinent and particularly abundant in states of Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Tamilnadu and West Bengal (Singh et al., 2007). The fruit is an irregular shaped flattened or rhomboid (Muzaffar and kumar, 2017). A typical fruit contains about 55% pulp, 34% seeds, and 11% shell and fibres (Rao et al., 2001; De Caluwe et al., 2010 ).The pulp of tamarind find important place in foods like chutney, pickle, jam, curries, sauces ice cream sarbat and tamarind fish. In medicine it has been used as an antidiabatic, digestive, expectorant, antipyretic, and anti malarial agent (Isha and Millind, 2012). In post-harvest operations dehulling, defibring and deseeding are the major process before storage (Goud et al., 2016), tamarind is a seasonal crop its preservation is very important among the post-harvest operations deseeding is considered to be important because seed will be easily attacked by pets and it will badly affect the pulp. For the advantage of marketing and exporting it is better to remove the seed to reduce the total weight and the paste can be directly used for food preparation. More over pulp is the only material which we generally need for our purposes (Balan et al., 2017). All the post-harvest handling practices are carried out by manually or mechanically. Post -harvest handling practices for tamarind It is important to know harvesting stage of tamarind fruit suitable for postharvest handling practices. Harvesting The physiological maturity of any fruit at harvest has an important effect on postharvest quality of that fruit Beckles (2012). Tamarind fruits begin to ripen during the months of February-March. (Duke, 1981; Rao et al., 1999). The pods are allowed to ripen on the tree until the outer shell is dry and could be easily separated from the pulp without adherence shankaracharya 1998; Muzaffar and kumar, 2017) At the ripe stage, the pulp shrinks, due to loss of moisture, and changes to reddish brown and becomes sticky (El-Sidding et al., 2006). It is recommended that fruit be harvested when the moisture content is less than 20% to facilitate the separation of the shell from the pulp (Salih and Elhadi, 2011). Fruit can be harvested by hand picking, clipping with a hook mounted on a stick or by shaking the branches (Goud et al., 2016). Drying of pods Drying the pods in the sun for 3-4 days is used to remove excess moisture and prevent the growth of molds. However, severe dehydration associated with sharp water loss causes curving of the fruits which are considered of lower quality compared to straight pods, dry pod is cracked, the pulp and fibers are separated and the seeds are removed (Yahia, 2004; Salih and Elhadi 2011) Dehulling defibering and desseding of tamarind fruit (pod) Dehulling defibering and desseding practices of tamarind pod are carried out by manually or mechanically. Traditional practices The farmers generally process the tamarind fruit by using traditional methods of seed expulsion such as beating with wooden mallet, stone or hammer. Entire post-harvest operations like dehulling, defibring and deseeding are usually carried out simultaneously by engaging the labourers. But, the efficiency of these operations depended on labour availability and favourable weather conditions. The existing traditional post-harvest process is tedious, time consuming labour intensive and leads to low output (Goud et al., 2016). Traditional methods which are commonly used for this purpose are very time consuming, less hygienic, less efficient, causing high structural damage, and require more number of labour. It is also deseeded by the process of hand pounding in which a stone mortar is sprayed with oil, generally castor oil, and a wooden pestle is used to exert impact load over the fruits. In some areas, a knife is used to deseed (Karthickumar et al. 2015; Karpoora, 2010). Mechanical practices For mechanical practices of dehuling, defibering and deseeding of tamarind pod several author have been design