Paruthi Paal in a Jar: Cottonseed Milk, Millets and a University Incubator
Cottonseed goes to the crusher and then to cattle. In a few southern districts it goes into a warm sweet drink instead — and getting that into a jar is a manufacturing problem before it is a recipe.
The short answer
Paruthi paal is a traditional cottonseed drink from the southern districts of Tamil Nadu, made by cleaning, soaking, grinding and straining cottonseed and cooking the extract with rice flour, coconut, jaggery and spices. It is one of the few human foods made from cottonseed, which in India is otherwise crushed for oil with the cake fed to cattle, and it depends on both the right seed and a practised preparation. Herbomill Nutrolites, a Coimbatore partnership founded in 2020 and incubated at TNAU's technology business incubator, sells a paruthi paal mix alongside millet mueslis, sprouted ragi flour and other ready-to-cook lines.
Start here
A cotton by-product, a university incubator, and a shelf
India grows more cotton than any other country, and almost none of the seed is eaten. It goes to the crusher for oil, and what is left goes to cattle as cake. The exception is a drink made in the southern districts of Tamil Nadu — paruthi paal, cottonseed milk, sold warm by street vendors around Madurai, Virudhunagar and Tirunelveli, and made at home for fever and for the heat.
A Coimbatore firm has put it in a jar. Herbomill Nutrolites, a partnership started in 2020 and incubated at Tamil Nadu Agricultural University's technology business incubator, sells a paruthi paal mix alongside millet mueslis, sprouted ragi flour and a handful of other ready-to-cook lines. Its founders are Dr V. Anusheela, a TNAU alumnus with a doctorate in plant breeding and genetics, and Dr M. Annadjothi, whose doctorate is in manufacturing engineering.
That pairing is the interesting part, and it is rarer than it sounds.
The craft
Why this drink took generations to work out
Cottonseed does not become a drink by accident. Which cotton the seed comes from matters, and so does what is done to it: traditional practice selects particular seed types for the purpose, then cleans it, soaks it overnight, grinds it and strains it before any of it meets a pan. Only then does it get cooked up with rice flour, coconut, jaggery and spices.
That sequence is knowledge, and it was arrived at without a laboratory. It is also the reason paruthi paal stayed a speciality of the southern districts rather than spreading everywhere — it is not a drink you improvise.
Which makes putting it in a jar a manufacturing question as much as a culinary one. A vendor grinding fresh seed each morning and a firm filling a pack that has to keep on a shelf are answering the same question in different ways. It is also why a plant breeder on one side of a partnership and a manufacturing engineer on the other is a more sensible pairing than it might look: one end of it is which seed, and the other is what a machine can reliably do to it.
The nutrition
What the seed actually offers
A study of the beverage published in the Journal of Ethnic Foods is clear about why anyone bothered in the first place. Cottonseed milk is unusually complete for a plant drink — protein, essential fatty acids and sugars together, which the authors describe as a triple-nutrient profile, and a reason it was given to people recovering from fever long before anyone measured it.
Traditionally it is also treated as a cooling drink, taken in the hot months and for the stomach. Those are traditional uses, recorded as such rather than offered as advice.
The rest of the shelf
Millets, ragi and a herbal soup
The cottonseed mix is one line of about eleven. Most of the range is millet and cereal breakfast food — a multi-millet muesli, a wheat muesli, and chocolate-and-nut versions of both — plus sprouted ragi flour, a sprouted ragi malt, an ABC malt built on apple, beetroot and carrot, a roasted wheat snack mixture and a solar-dried beetroot powder.
There is also a mudavattukkaal soup mix, a Tamil herbal preparation of the kind long associated with joint stiffness — the best-documented herb in that family is mudakathan, the balloon vine Cardiospermum halicacabum, a staple of Siddha practice that turns up in rasam, dosai and soup across the state.
Sprouting is the quiet technical choice in that list. Sprouting finger millet before milling changes how the grain behaves — it is a standard step in making ragi easier to digest and its minerals easier to absorb — and it is more work than simply grinding it.
The full catalogueHerbomill Nutrolites — all eleven products, with pack sizesThe company's own catalogue, which this article was written from. It carries the nutritional panel for each product, the pack sizes, and the founders' account of how the firm started. Published by Herbomill Nutrolites; IndianAgri hosts a copy so the source of this piece stays checkable.Download the catalogue
Why it matters
The gap between a millet mission and a millet product
India has spent several years promoting millets, and the promotion has mostly reached the grain. The harder question has always been what a household actually does with it on a weekday morning, because a sack of ragi and a box of breakfast cereal are not competing on the same terms.
Value addition is the bridge, and it is where most farm-adjacent ventures stall: it needs food technology, a shelf-stable process, packaging, licensing and a route to a retailer, none of which a grower has. University incubators exist precisely to lend that. Herbomill lists incubation at TNAU's technology business incubator, DPIIT recognition, FSSAI and FDA licensing, UDYAM registration, a Tamil Nadu Startup certificate and a registered trademark — the unglamorous paperwork that separates a product you can put in a shop from a good idea.
Whether these particular products sell is a different question, and not one this piece can answer. What is worth noting is the route: a cotton by-product and a promoted grain, taken through a university incubator by two people with the two doctorates the problem needs. There is more of that available in Indian agriculture than gets used.
Why it matters
India has promoted millets hard for several years, and the promotion has largely reached the grain rather than the breakfast table. Value addition is the bridge, and it is where most farm-adjacent ventures stall, because it needs food technology, a shelf-stable process, licensing and a retail route that a grower does not have. University incubators exist to lend exactly that, and this is a worked example of the route: a cotton by-product and a promoted grain, taken through TNAU's incubator by two founders with the two doctorates the problem actually needs.
Frequently asked
What is paruthi paal?
A traditional drink from the southern districts of Tamil Nadu made from cottonseed. The seed is cleaned, soaked, ground and strained, and the extract is cooked with rice flour, coconut, jaggery and spices. It is sold warm by street vendors around Madurai, Virudhunagar and Tirunelveli, and made at home during fever and in hot weather.
Why is paruthi paal made only in some districts?
Because it takes specific knowledge. The seed has to be the right type and has to be properly prepared — cleaned, soaked overnight, ground and strained — before it is cooked. That craft was worked out over generations in the southern districts of Tamil Nadu and stayed there.
What else is cottonseed used for in India?
Most of it is crushed for oil, with the cake going to cattle as feed. India is the world's largest cotton producer, so paruthi paal is a rare and interesting case of the seed going into human food instead.
What is mudakathan?
Mudakathan is the balloon vine, Cardiospermum halicacabum, a herb long used in Tamil Siddha practice and eaten in rasam, dosai, thuvaiyal and soup. It is traditionally associated with joint stiffness. That is a traditional use, not a medical claim.
Who are Herbomill Nutrolites?
A partnership firm based in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, started in 2020 by Dr V. Anusheela, a TNAU alumnus with a doctorate in plant breeding and genetics, and Dr M. Annadjothi, whose doctorate is in manufacturing engineering. It makes ready-to-eat and ready-to-cook millet and cereal products and is incubated at TNAU's technology business incubator.
Source
- Journal of Ethnic Foods — Paruthi Paal, a nutrient-rich healthy drink from cottonseed: an Indian delicacy
- TNAU Technology Business Incubator
- Tamil Nadu Agricultural University
Company details — founders, year, incubation and the product range — are as stated by Herbomill Nutrolites in its own catalogue. The description of paruthi paal draws on a peer-reviewed paper in the Journal of Ethnic Foods, cited below. IndianAgri has not tested these products and has no commercial relationship with the company; traditional uses are reported as traditional uses rather than as health advice.
