NUTMEG CRACKER

Abstract

Nutmeg has been used as natural food flavouring in baked goods, syrups, beverages, savory dishes and sweets. The essential oil obtained from nutmeg is used heavily in the cosmetics and pharmaceutical industries. Nutmeg and Mace are two different parts of same fruit of the nutmeg tree – Myristica fragrans Houtt. The fruits are pendulous, broadly pyriform, yellow, smooth, 7- 10cm long, fleshy splitting open into two halves when ripe, showing the ovoid 2-3cm long dark brown shining seed with hard seed coat, surrounded by a glaciate red aril attached to the base of the seed. The process of decortication of nutmegs to separate kernels is done manually using a hammer. The traditional decortication process is time and labour consuming. To address this, power operated nutmeg decorticator was developed. Preliminary design and the literature survey of our project were done. Currently the decortication process is operated using a roller system. Most of the machine parts will be of mild steel. The cost estimation of the materials required was calculated. The total time for the completion of project was expected to be 3 months. The weekly activities were expected to be completed within the estimated time.