ChingTam Ngari - Fermented Fish, 200 g

Ngari is a fermented fish product from Manipur, made from sun-dried non-salted fish. It is an important ingredient for the preparation of various oil-free Manipuri traditional dishes such as Eromba, Kangsoi, Singju, and Morok Metpa (a side dish, a Manipuri version of chutney). Consumed almost daily in Manipur, Ngari is also popular in the other northeastern states of India. The product is known for its flavour, enhancement of nutritional quality and its probiotic properties. Studies have reported potency as a potential probiotic, anti-oxidant and anti-hypertensive character and can find wide application in functional food and pharmaceutical formulation. It is also known that Ngari is an intricate part of the diet of the people Manipur. The fermented fish product Ngari has bioactive molecules with potential biological and therapeutic activities. During the process of fermentation fermented foods can produce an anti-oxidant and anti-microbial compound that stimulates the probiotic function (Farhad et al, 2010). Fermented fish products apart from serving as a good source of protein might possess bioactive, especially ACE inhibitory properties and anti-oxidants activity (Phadka et al., 2014). The inhibition of ACE (angiotensin-converting enzyme) activity is a major target in the prevention of hypertension (Ondetii et al.1977). Fermentation is an effective way to generate ACE inhibitory peptides, which are released from the long-chain protein of the food matrix in the role of a protease secreted by microorganisms (Sarkar and Nout, 2014).