Central Tuber Crops Research Institute

About: Central Tuber Crops Research Institute is a facility organization based out in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Starch & Fermentation. The organization has 475 authors who have published 587 publications receiving 10285 citations.

Gelatinisation Properties of Cassava Starch in the Presence of Salts, Acids and Oxidising Agents

Abstract: The effect of various cations, anions, acids and oxidising agents on the gelatinisation properties of cassava starch was studied and wide variation was observed in the pasting and swelling properties. Sodium chloride and sodium thiosulphate slightly lowered the peak viscosity of cassava starch with increase in concentration, whereas with sodium sulphite, calcium chloride and sodium hypochlorite, a more significant decrease in the viscosity and breakdown was observed. Ferrous sulphate, alum, aluminium chloride and acids enhanced the peak viscosity at lower concentrations followed by a decrease at 1% and above. Sodium metabisulphite elevated the viscosity at 0.05 and 0.1%, while sodium hypochlorite lowered the viscosity and breakdown. DSC studies showed that aluminium chloride, sodium sulphite, and sodium thiosulphate brought about an increase in Tonset, Tend and ΔH values at higher concentrations. A decrease in swelling volume was observed from 0.05 to 1% concentration of sodium chloride and above that there was a gradual increase. With sodium sulphite, a significant increase in swelling volume was observed at 2.5 and 5% levels. With 0.05 and 0.1% aluminium chloride and sodium metabisulphite an increase in swelling volume was noticed, but at higher concentrations there was a drastic fall. Sodium chloride, sodium sulphite, sodium thiosulphate and calcium chloride brought about decrease in starch paste clarity with increase in salt concentration, whereas ferrous sulphate, aluminium chloride, sodium hypochlorite, hydrochloric acid and acetic acid improved the starch paste clarity.

Partial characterization and optimization of production of extracellular alpha-amylase from Bacillus subtilis isolated from culturable cow dung microflora.

Abstract: Studies of "-amylase production by Bacillus subtilis (CM3) isolated earlier from cow dung microflora, were carried out. The optimum temperature, pH and incubation period for amylase production were 50n70∞C, 5.0n9.0 and 36 h, respectively. Enzyme secretion was very similar in the presence of any of the carbon sources tested (soluble starch, potato starch, cassava starch, wheat flour, glucose, fructose, etc.). Yeast extract and ammonium acetate (1%) as nitrogen sources gave higher yield compared to other nitrogen sources (peptone, malt extract, casein, asparagine, glycine, beef extract), whereas ammonium chloride, ammonium sulphate and urea inhibited the enzyme activity. Addition of Ca +2 (10 n 40 mM) to the culture medium did not result in further improvement of enzyme production, whereas the addition of surfactants (Tween 20, Tween 40, Tween 80, and sodium lauryl sulphate) at 0.02% resulted in 2 n 15% increase in enzyme production. There were no significant variations in enzyme yield between shaked-flask and laboratory fermentor cultures. The purified enzyme is in two forms with molecular mass of 18.0 ‐ 1 and 43.0 ‐ 1 kDa in native SDS-PAGE.

Nutritional and potential health benefits of konjac glucomannan, a promising polysaccharide of elephant foot yam, Amorphophallus konjac K. Koch: A review

Abstract: Amorphophallus konjac (konjac) is one among the major vegetable (tuber) crops grown in Asian countries. In China and Japan, it has been used as food and a food additive for more than 1000 years. Ov...

Morphological, biochemical and molecular characterization of Trichoderma harzianum isolates for their efficacy as biocontrol agents.

Abstract: The random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) procedure was used to examine the genetic variability among 8 isolates of Trichoderma harzianum, and their ability to antagonize Sclerotium rolfsii using a dual culture assay was correlated with RAPD profiles. Eight oligodeoxynucleotide primers were selected for the RAPD assays, which resulted in 86 bands for 8 isolates of T. harzianum. The data were entered into a binary matrix and a similarity matrix was constructed using the DICE similarity (SD) index. An unweighted pair grouping mathematical averaging (UPGMA) cluster based on SD values was generated using the NTSYS computer program. A mean coefficient of similarity obtained for pairwise comparisons was c. 30% and it showed that the variability among the isolates of T. harzianum was very high. Using the dual culture method in antagonism experiments, the T. harzianum isolates were classified in to antagonism classes. Further, T. harzianum isolates were screened for chitinase and β-1,3-glucanase activity. RAPD was efficient in demonstrating the high intraspecific genetic variation among isolates. The dendrogram did not show the grouping of isolates by their level of antagonism. Relationship among polymorphism existent, the aggressiveness and the origin of isolates were not found.