In India, it is mainly used as an ingredient in sweet and savoury
dishes. Further, its use in many herbal and traditional medicines [5].
In Ayurvedic way of medicine, it is used as medicine, blood purifier
and base material for syrups. Jaggery is among major agro processing
industries in India. Nearly 20-30% of total sugarcane produced in the
country is used for manufacture of about 7 million tonnes jaggery,
which is known as most nutritious agent among all sweeteners [7].
This sector provides employment to about 2.5 million people [8]. It is
therefore, imperative to expand the sector, as it provides higher food
value jaggery at lower cost and boosts-up the rural economic system,
involves low transportation cost of raw material, and non requirement
of highly technical machinery and labour [9]. Jaggery still dominates
in preparation of various products like- reori, gazak, chikki, patti and
ramdana, etc. of ancient origin. Kakavi (liquid jaggery) is part of daily
diet in most parts of Maharashtra, and has been gaining commercial
importance in India [10]. Jaggery is rich in important minerals like
salts: 2.8 g/100 grams, whereas only 300 mg/kg is obtained in refined
sugar