Admixtures plants of marc, a Himalayan mixed fermentation starter culture ABSTRACT

While the mechanism by which the Himalayan mixed-fermentation starter culture marc ferments alcohol has been described in several publications [Hesseltine and Kurtzman 1990; Hesseltine and Ray 1988; Hesseltine et al 1988; Hesseltine et al 1985; Hesseltine 1979; Shrestha et al 2002; Tamang 2003; Tamang 1998; Tamang et al 1996; Tamang and Sarkar 1995; Tamang 1993; Tamang 1991], earlier investigations of the role of plant admixtures to the culture have been limited to the compilation of inventories and etic rationales for use, the data disembodied from their social contexts [Etkin 1988]. This paper attempts to explore the aesthetic considerations of admixture plant selection and substitution, as well as indigenous understandings of quality and efficacy as they relate to harvesting pressures on wild plants. I recognise that the paper is interdisciplinary and have endeavored to keep descriptions simple and accessible to readers from both science and social science backgrounds. Consequently, I avoid disciplinary jargon, striving for largely descriptive ethnography and low-level analysis. Keywords: yeast, beverages, fermentation, Sikkim, Darjeeling, Kalimpong, Eastern Nepal, Himalaya, ethnomycology, amylolytic, Zygomycetes, marca, murcha, marcha, marcaa, marchaa,

INTRODUCTION
You cant buy cheap rice from the plains to make marc; only local rice will work, soaked overnight in water with the potentiator plants. You must get up before sunrise and pound the rice and these plant dabai into flour in a mortar, setting aside a handful of flour for an offering. Take the flour inside out of the open air to protect it from wind and hungry ghosts, then knead it with water into a soft dough. Let no one come inside the room; if a bongsu (childhood coprophage) sets eyes on it, your marc may spoil. Save a little of the dough, too, for the hungry ghosts, or they will steal the goodness from the beer. When the cakes have been dusted with old marc powder and laid in their bed of spicy ferns to dry, gently toss the flour and dough you set aside out the door, offering it to the hungry sugut lurking outside. Then threaten them that if they come inside, you will throw hot ashes in their eyes, spit phlegm on them, and chase them out with a branch from the fire. 'Whistle' the ghosts out of the marc, sweeping them out the door, first with a broom, then a log from the fire, 'spitting' pthupthupthupthu after them. If they were stubborn and stole into your last batch, sweep the use a smoldering cigar made of rolled up cloth to sweep the ghosts out. Dont use this against them too often, though, or the spirit of the home will become angry and your family will suffer. After three days drying above the fire, pack the marc for market. Remember, ask it in the language of the people to make drinks tastier, not to spoil them, and to bring good business, prosperity, and wealth. If the season goes well, sacrifice a goat yourself to thank the marc for making you prosperous. J. S. Limboo, personal communication, December 2004 Rumors of closed doors, arcane rituals, esoteric languages, old women passing the knowledge of their familys secret plants to their maiden daughters in the pre-dawn lightthese were the stories that first captured my curiosity. Although in the course of a year in Sikkim, I met just one family that still prepared marc this way, I was nonetheless faschinated by the sophistication of indigenous alcohol production biotechnology. The ingenuity of combining moulds that convert

inert foods into simple sugars with yeasts that turn sugar into alcohol astounded me. By including lactic acid-producing bacteria as well, the alcoholic food lasts longer before spoiling and acquires a desirable, tart flavour. The complex mix of cultures manipulated in the production of 'beer' (j) and liquor (rk ) give producers a high degree of control over the characteristics of the final product [Henkel 2004]. The different classes of micro-organism respond to changes in oxygen availability, the liquid or solid state of the carbohydrate, and the temperature to enable manufacturers to control the sweetness, aroma, alcohol content, and acidity of the final product [Henkel 2005].

PRODUCTION RESTRICTIONS
J. S. Subba and his wife Rita had made marc for most of their life, but their childrens unwillingness to help out with the business in their parents old age as well as competition from non-traditional tradesmen caused them to retire. Rita explained that, had the family still been making marc, they would never have been willing to teach me out of concern that I would spread the secrets that keep marc production in the hands of a few families. Certainly, in a years time, no other family spoke of rituals to address spiritual aspects of efficacy, of having an intimate rapport with marc, or of a formal ritual at all. Most did not use unique identifier in any language for sweet marcs primary plant admixture Polygala arillata (Buch.-Ham ex D.Don), instead referring to it as the root" or just as the dabai. Used to refer both to marc and to the plant admixtures thought to be essential to its efficacy, the word is usually translated as medicine.

Dabai is also used to refer to pharmaceuticals, herbal medicine, fertilizer, herbicide, baking soda,
and cockroach poison [Garrett 2009]. They, as well as most retailers and consumers, believe that it is by keeping their knowledge of the one or many dabai secret that they retain their ethnic "monopoly" over the trade [Tamang 2001; Tamang 1996; Thapa 2001]. Although marc is produced by families from many different ethnic groups, at least one member of every family interviewed identified as Limbu or Rai. The last two decades, however, have seen hereditary barriers to the trade break down. In the search for another source of increasingly important cash income, traditionally non-marc-making families are developing their own methods of production through a mix of common knowledge and experimentation. In the remote villages where marc is made, most cash comes from the sale of primary agricultural products such as vegetables, millet, eggs, milk, livestock, rice, and large cardamom (Amomum subulatum Roxb.). For many families, making marc is an effective way of converting an abundant, low market value resource into a value-added product [Rai and Subba 2003;

Tamang 2001; Tamang 2000]. The income from marc production is seasonally variable, depending on regional microclimatic conditions. During the summer months in the low Himalayan foothills, heat and humidity make it hard to combat spoilage, lowering production. In the high hills, however, the marc cultures are out-competed by opportunistic microbes better adapted to the cold during winter.

PRODUCT CATEGORIES AND ORGANOLEPTIC ANALYSIS

Demand for marc of different types is also seasonal. Although most consumers prefer the sweet flavour, pleasant scent, low alcohol content, and few off-flavours (described as tito) of sweet (gulyo) marc, the culture requires warm temperatures to ferment properly. In cold weather, fermentation takes longer and can easily sour (described as milo, or sometimes tito,) spoiling the flavour, aroma, and alcohol content. Rather than wait three weeks in winter for a batch of

j , most people use tito (literally, bitter) marc.. J prepared with this culture ferments in
half the time needed using sweet marc and produces j with higher alcohol content, but with

tito organoleptic qualities. The Wapisiana of Guyana use a starter culture much like marc, and
also use bitter to refer to these off-flavours [Henkel 2004]. The j made from tito marc is malty, slightly tart, and brims with savory aromas. Within the last ten years, a few marc makers have begun experimenting with a fifty-fifty mix of the sweet and tito cultures as a compromise between flavour and alcohol content. It has found a market with managers of governmentlicensed liquour shops, producing a strong, yet pleasantly drinkable j . However, the sweet and tito categories of marc are not universally recognized. Nearly half the producers, vendors, and consumers interviewed arranged the qualities of j on a continuum and understood marc as differing only in terms of potency. Tito j was, for example, understood to be the product of sweet j produced with extra marc. By increasing the ratio of

marc to starch, the j would ferment more quickly, be less likely to spoil in cold weather, and
develop tito organoleptic qualities. By adding yet more marc, the producer would sacrifice flavor entirely in order to maximise alcohol content for the production of distilled liquor. Figure:1

Most marc makers instead conceptualise marc in terms of the characteristics it is expected to impart in the fermented product. The perceived plasticity of the speed of fermentation, flavour, alcohol concentration, sweetness, and acidity of the final product allow the producer to see

marc in very flexible terms. Invariably, three admixture plants are regarded as absolutely
necessary: spicy chili fruit, ginger rhizome, and Polygala arillata root. However, marc makers even within the same village rarely share an understanding of how the dabai plants should be used. While one manufacturer may substitute tito root for sweet root to produce tito marc, another may instead double the ratio of the sweet root used to create the same effect. In West Sikkim, most producers recognise the existence of six dabai plants that should be used to make good marc, though they may not agree on which six these are. Most people acknowledge that they do not usually bother to collect all the plants, as they are satisfied using just chillies, ginger,

P. arillata root, and old marc powder. Whatever their method, the demands of the market
dictate the type of marc they produce.

PLANT ADMIXTURES
Among families without a family history of production, manufacturing methods are subject to constant innovation. In informal interviews during plant collection trips, these families were able to describe the effects or lack thereof attributed to nearly every plant along the path. These same families can often free-list thirty or forty different dabai and where they can be found, including many not found locally. It was only in the last generation that the use of okhar (Juglans regia Linn.) root in tito marc ended, because it was determined that its addition was responsible for headaches. More recently, some producers are reputed to have begun using jhat siru root (Saccharum sp.) since it is believed to make sweet marc even sweeter. Across the Sikkim Gap, P. arillata is considered to be the principal admixture. As a result, in many areas the tree has been completely eradicated its wild collection has been made illegal [Rai and Subba 2003]. In regions where the tree is not found, marc makers may either purchase it from travelling herbal medicine sellers at extortionate rates or travel to areas where it can be purchased directly from poachers. Perhaps because the plant is now seen as a valuable resource, villages that export P. arillata endeavour to harvest it sustainably. In one community, the trees are camouflaged and tended in their forested cardamom fields in a kind of illicit agroforestry. Among traditional marc-making families, a distinction is drawn between white (seto) and black (kalo) varieties of P. arillata, the white preferred for producing the more marketable sweet marc,

while the black variety is used to make tito marc. However, the means of distinguishing white plants from black were not consistent among individual interviews, even within the same family. Some say the roots of the black variety are darker than the white, while others say it is the leaf stems that are darker. Still others say the colour of the bark is the distinguishing factor. Although there is no consensus on how to differentiate between the varieties, all agree that the white variety is the most desirable.

ANALYSIS OF FUNCTION AND SELECTION

Although the term dabai is used for all of the plant admixtures, their functions are understood to be quite different. Producers make it clear that the chillies and ginger are used for very different reasons than P. arillata root, and that if either were omitted, the marc would be spoiled by mould. The antimicrobial activity of ginger and chili is well-documented [Billing and Sherman 1998], as is that of black pepper, used in place of chillies in the Kathmandu Valley [Rai and Subba 2003]. Although not generally referred to as one of the dabai for marc, spicy fern fronds [Glaphylopteriopsis erubescens (wall. Ex Hook.) Ching] are considered highly important as well and are used as insulating material to line the drying baskets [Tamang 2001]. Although occasionally other fern varieties were used, the manufacturers always insisted that they were using the spicy variety until they themselves tasted it. The ubiquitous use of spicy products in

marc manufacture indicates the importance of the spiciness to the perceived efficacy of the
product. Chillies as a New World product must be a recent innovation, likely replacing another

dabai plant for reasons of cost, efficacy, or availability. I would suggest that the importance of
ginger, chillies, and spicy fern lies in their spicy organoleptic qualities, and that the spiciness of the product was the characteristic that first flagged the plants for investigation as possible dabai. By using plant admixtures with potent antimicrobial properties, it is likely that producers reduce spoilage due to competition from other micro-organisms. By breeding successive generations of the culture in a microbial growth-inhibiting environment, the producer unconsciously domesticates strains of the culture resistant to those plant chemicals [Zohary 2004]. In contrast to ginger and chillies, P. arillata and many other dabai plants are added because they are considered essential to fermentation. If these plants are omitted, it is believed that the marc will not work, not that the product will be spoiled as suggested by other researchers [Tamang et

al 1995; Tamang and Sarkar 1995; Tamang 1991]. That is not to say that P. arillata and other
dabai used for the reaction are not important to product efficacy. In a culture of experimentation, that the risk, expense, and inconvenience of obtaining P. arillata do not appear to have diminished its demand makes a strong case for its laboratory study. The number of

variables involved in the traditional method of preparation, though, makes it study design challenging. Rai and Subba wrote that the function of the plant admixtures is to inoculate the

marc with the yeasts responsible for fermentation [2003]. However, their study of free-listed
admixture plants uses methods of preparation convenient for laboratory analysis, but that do not reflect traditional methods of production. It also does not account for the addition of old marc powder during manufacture, seemingly the obvious source of the yeasts needed for fermentation. In their results, Polygala sp. rated as least effective of the admixtures reviewed, although it is regarded by marc producers as the most important admixture plant. In reporting on the activities of plant extracts prepared in ways that hardly approximate preparation in situ, the authors conclusions cannot be considered accurate representations of indigenous methods [Etkin 1998].

One common element links nearly all of the fermentation-potentiating dabai. Collectors were quick to point out the mild, distinctive stevia- or licorice-like glycosidal sweetness of P. arillata root, so that I might distinguish imitations. The leaves of the widespread bhimseng [Buddleja

asiatica Lour.] are even more powerfully sweet, although regarded as an inferior substitute.
Other now obsolete admixtures such as the bulb of the tik:w:j [Bulbophyllum affine Lindl.] orchid and the root of sak:tum:tum:b [Cucumis sativus Linn., var. sikkimensis Hooker f.], as well as the recent innovation jht siru [Saccharum sp.] also possess a distinctive terpenoidal sweetness, recognisably different from the sweetness of sugary plants like mango or beet [Kinghorn and Soejarto 2002]. The saccharifying action of the marc moulds is what distinguish its action from that of other starter cultures and link its power to the sweet taste [Campbell-Platt 1994]. When marc is used to make sweet j, the first stage of fermentation transforms bland starting materials such as rice or millet into a sweet, very low alcohol mash. It is only in the second stage once mash has been transferred to a sealed, anaerobic environment that the mash becomes alcoholic. Determining the correct time to stop the sweetening process and begin alcohol fermentation is critical to preparing good-quality j. It is this process which makes marc a dabai for creating both sweetness and alcohol. Because this sweetness is understood to be critical to the action of

marc, plants with this quality have either been the first investigated as potential dabai by marc
makers, or have been retained due to mnemonic resilience. A clear understanding of these selection processes is vital to conservation of these species as harvesting pressures on them increase in a rapidly expanding, unregulated market [Poudel 2008].

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The author would like to thank Buddhilal Subba, O.B. Das, Barbara Gerke, G.K. Subba, Nirmal the International Trust for Traditional Medicine, Dr. V. Prakash of the Central Food Technology Research Institute of Mysore, the G.B. Pant Institute, and most of all the generous makers of

marc that took the time to teach me some of what they know. This paper is dedicated to the late
Clifford Hesseltine, one of the foremost authorities on indigenous fermented foods around the world.

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