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Vegetables from Myanmar

Khantat chin (sour Crateva leaves)

Khantat chin is the leaf of the temple plant, Crateva religiosa, soured in rice water or cooked-rice juice with a little salt. In a container used before it is ready in one to two days, and it seldom takes more than a week. Market samples were the most acid of six Burmese plant ferments, at about pH 3.3.

Fully documentedVegetables2 days – 9 days

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedSmall family producers with no fixed amounts; the method comes from interviews with five to eight makers per product (Bo and Win 2022).
Crateva religiosa leavesCleaned[bo2022]
Rice water or cooked-rice juice[bo2022]
SaltA small amount[bo2022]
Fermented congee liquid (optional)Congee soured with a little salt for 1–2 days, used as a starter by some makers[bo2022]
Starterspontaneous; a reused container speeds it up; some first ferment congee with salt for 1–2 days as a starter liquid

Total time across the recorded steps: 2 days – 9 days

Start
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What changes: Starting material: Crateva leaves, cleaned

Step 1 of 4
Clean the leaves
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
L. mesenteroides
Lactobacilli
Lactic acid bacteria

Output: clean Crateva leaves.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

Not documented for this step.

Method

Measured measured in a studySet fixed by a specification or tested recipeReported one source reports itTypical a general value, not sourced for this fermentUnconfirmed not yet checked against a source

At a glance

Khantat chin is the leaf of the temple plant, Crateva religiosa, soured in rice water or cooked-rice juice with a little salt. In a container used before it is ready in one to two days, and it seldom takes more than a week. Market samples were the most acid of six Burmese plant ferments, at about pH 3.3. Made in 4 steps over 2 days – 9 days. The longest step, ferment until sour, takes 24 h – 7 days (Bo Bo and Aye Aye Win 2022). Leuconostoc mesenteroides and Lactobacilli, 7.72 log CFU/g in market samples do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step24 h – 7 daysReported[bo2022]Ferment until sour
AciditypH 3.3Measured[bo2022]Ferment until sour

What makes this one different

Khantat chin is made the same way as mon-la chin (moanlar shin), the Burmese radish pickle, but from the leaves of a tree. In the 2022 study it had the lowest pH of the six ferments tested.

Related ferments

Safety

Market samples measured pH 3.32 ± 0.18. The study notes that market samples had fermented for less than five days.

History and sources

Every number is labelled with how it is known. How this atlas is made

Khantat chin, saunggyan chin and buu chin are seasonal ferments, made only in Myanmar's hot season from March to May.

  1. [bo2022] Bo Bo and Aye Aye Win 2022, Myanmar popular plant-based fermented foods, their processing, and their microorganisms potential for probiotics, Bacterial Empire 5(3):e430paper
  2. [defilipps2018] DeFilipps R.A., Krupnick G.A. 2018, The medicinal plants of Myanmar, PhytoKeys 102:1–341, entry Crateva religiosa (leaf use)paper
  3. [wp-crateva] Wikipedia, Crateva religiosa (plant identity only), read 2026-10wiki