Some Functional Properties of khambir, an Ethnic Fermented Cereal-Based Food of Western Himalayas

Traditional leavened wheat based flat bread khambir is a staple food of high altitude people of the Western Himalayan region. The health promoting abilities of two types of khambir, yeast added (YAK) and buttermilk added (BAK) were evaluated. A group of microbes like yeast, mold, lactic acid bacteria, and Bifidobacterium sp. were abundant in both khambir but in varied proportion. Both are enriched with phenolics and flavonoids. The aqueous extracts of both bread strongly inhibited the growth of enteropathogens. Molecular docking experiments showed that phenolic acid, particularly p-coumaric acid blocked the active sites of -glucosidase and acetylcholine esterase, thereby inhibited their activities. YAK and BAK showed antiradical, and antioxidant activity ranging from 46% to 67% evaluated by DPPH, ABTS and FRAP assays. The aqueous extract of both khambir samples protected arsenic toxicity when examined under in situ rat intestinal loop model study. The arsenic induced elevated level of superoxide dismutase, catalase, reduced glutathione, lipid peroxidation, DNA fragmentation and transmembrane mitochondrial potential alleviated by khambir extract. These results scientifically supported its age-old health benefit claims by the consumer at high altitude and there are enough potentialities to explore khambir as a medicinal food for human welfare.