B.Sc.-M.Sc. Int.

The study entitled “Investigation on extraction of starch from cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) stem” was carried out at the Division of Crop Utilization, ICAR- Central Tuber Crops Research Institute, Sreekariyam, Thiruvananthapuram during the year 2018- 2019. Cassava stem starch is an ideal source to increase the availability of starch without using additional land, water and fertilizers. Hence understanding the structural and functional properties of stem starch is an important aspect before substituting with root starch because there is a lack of knowledge of starch properties when compared to root starch.
In this study, starch from cassava stem were extracted by four different methods such as extraction using water, extraction using chemicals such as Sodium hydroxide and sodium meta bi sulphate, microwave assisted extraction and ultra sound assisted extraction. The cassava genotypes suitable for extraction of starch from stem and functional properties of this stem starches were investigated.
In the present study, the physiological characters of such as stem length, stem girth, stem fresh weight and stem dry weight and stem moisture content were measured in the selected genotypes of cassava. The results showed that stem length of cassava ranges from 100-300cm and the stem girth ranges from 2.5-8cm. The fresh weight and dry weight of cassava stem ranges from 0.4-2Kg and 0.2-0.7Kg respectively.The moisture content of cassava stem varies from 62-72% but the moisture content was less than 2% in all stem starches. The swelling volume was same for all the stem starches (15ml) and the solubility was less than 10%. Starches with high swelling volume and solubility and low gelatinization temperature has various applications in food industry. The water binding capacity varied from 46.09% to 77.50% for different cassava stem starches. The in vitro starch digestibility of cassava stem starches ranges from 0.1-0.3 g/g. The starch yield from cassava stem ranges from 17% to 30% and the starch content was found to be 38-55% on dry weight basis. The starch yield was found to be maximum for H-1687 and minimum for Quintal.


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The peroxidase content in cassava stem starches ranges from 0.05-0.13ng/mg and the poly phenol oxidase content ranges from 10-30mg/g. Both this enzyme content was found to be lowest in Black Thailand and maximum for Sree Swarna and Quintal. It was found that extraction using ultra sound and micro wave assistance could increase the extractability of starch from cassava stem and the genotypes H1687 and H-226 was found to be high starch yielding varieties and thus it could be used for the extraction of starch from cassava stem. Cassava stem contain more than 30% of starch (dry mass), hence the wasted cassava stem starch can be utilized for both food and non-food applications. More over cassava can increase both food and fuel resources where cassava roots are for food and stems for fuel and even reduce poverty without using additional land.