Faiza Tehseen

Pakistan should boost the indigenous production of citric acid to cut back on its imports and the production costs.

“A handsome foreign exchange can be earned through the export of direct or value-added citric acid-based products,” stressed Dr Riffat Tahira, a principal scientific officer and programme leader of National Medicinal, Aromatic, and Herbs Programme of Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC). Talking to WealthPK, she said, “Citric acid is a naturally occurring antioxidant but a weak organic acid. In varied quantities, a lot of fruits and vegetables bear citric acid, including lemon, lime, orange, grapefruit, pineapple, grapes, and berries, except blueberries. The citrus acid-rich vegetables are carrots, tomatoes, broccoli, and some varieties of peppers. The high concentration of citric acid in them makes them sour. Lemons and limes are considered rich in citric acid, which can be accounted for 10% of their dry weight. Onion also contains 48.5% citric acid.”  She said that citric acid is an important natural compound that forms a crystalline solid, odourless and sour in taste.

“Citric acid is extracted by two methods – the submerged fermentation process or the solid-state fermentation method and surface culture method. The first one is used to produce small amounts while the other one is for large-scale commercial production. The extraction methods are easy and economical. For fermentation, wheat straw or in-kind low-cost mediums are used while bacteria or fungi are used as fermenting agents.” Riffat said, “It is used for a variety of industrial and domestic purposes. For most food products, it is used as a flavoring, preserving and pH-balancing agent. Citric acid is an active ingredient in many personal care products and cosmetics. It is also an important component of many cleaning agents. In agriculture, citric acid is used to lower the pH of alkaline soils as a pesticide, and as a chelating agent to chelate metals.” 

She said industrially, citric acid is used for a variety of purposes, including electroplating, leather tanning, and detergent manufacturing. “It is used in the personal care and pharma industry as a buffer and antioxidant. It is also used to store, stabilise, or preserve medicines/blood. It is a good disinfectant and an active ingredient in pesticide products, fungicides and even sanitisers.”   The PARC scientist said, “As citric acid is used in a variety of industrial products, it is imported in bulk.” She said citric acid is produced in the country to some extent but not at an industrial scale. “The indigenous extraction of citric acid or other industrial raw materials in the country can be successful only with industry-academia coordination because such types of products require regular updates or development.”

Discussing with WealthPK the importance of indigenous production of citric acid, chemist and businessman Mumtaz Hussain Mian said, “Although citric acid is not an extremely precious industrial agent, it is a necessary ingredient of a variety of industrial produce. To fulfil its need in large quantities, it is imported. The added import cost sometimes doubles the product cost. Therefore, its local production should be encouraged by the government.” He said that private investments should be encouraged to boost local extraction of citric acid to cut back on imports to save precious foreign exchange and generate new business and job opportunities in the country.

Credit: INP-WealthPk