Browsing by Author "Somendrika, M. A. D."

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Preliminary study on starch extraction ratio and nutritional composition of two cassava cultivars
(Research Symposium on Pure and Applied Sciences, 2018 Faculty of Science, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2018) Weerasinghe, R. K. L.; Wickramasinghe, I.; Somendrika, M. A. D.
Cassava (Manihot esculanta) is one of the most important food crop among tropical countries. Cassava has higher carbohydrate content and its tapioca starch and modified tapioca starch is highly used as an ingredient of many food products. The objective of this preliminary study was to compare the starch yields and analyze the moisture, fat and protein contents of the extracted starch of two cassava cultivars (Kirikawadi and Muthukawadi variety). Cassava starch was extracted using good quality mature cassava roots. They were cleaned to remove mud, peeled, washed and grated. Those grated roots were milled with tap water mixing in 1:4 ratio by using laboratory scale blender at low speed and filtered through a muslin cloth. Residue was repeatedly milled and filtered again. The suspension was kept to sediment the starch for overnight. The supernatant was decanted and the settled residue was collected into a drying tray and was dried at 600C for 5 hr, dried sample was ground using laboratory blender, sieved through a 300 µm sieve, packed in airtight pouch, sealed in airtight container and stored in cold room (<50C). Cassava starch yield was calculated. Moisture content, fat content and protein contents were analyzed by AOAC (2012) methods. The average extraction ratio of Kirikawadi variety and Muthukawadi variety were 0.13 and 0.11. The average starch yield of Cassava Kirikawadi and Muthukawadi varieties were 12.8% and 11.05%. The flesh of the roots of Kirikawadi and Muthukawadi varieties contained average moisture content of 51.77% and 53.08% respectively. The average range of moisture content of starch of Kirikawadi variety ranged from 16.08% to 16.97% and Muthukawadi variety ranged from 6.99% to 8.43%. The crude fat content of starch of Kirikawadi variety ranged from 0.31% to 0.36% and Muthukawadi variety ranged from 2.14% to 3.29%. The average crude protein content of starch of Kirikawadi variety ranged between; from 2.37% to 3.35% and it ranged from 2.46% to 2.53% in Muthukawadi variety starch. There was a significant difference (p<0.05) between the average moisture content of starch extracted from Kirikawadi and Muthukawadi. Furthemore, there was a significant difference (p<0.05) between the average fat content and there was no significant difference (p>0.05) between average protein content of starch extracted from Kirikawadi and Muthukawadi.
Textural profile analysis of granulated cassava pearls of two cultivars treated with conventional and microwave heating
(Research Symposium on Pure and Applied Sciences, 2018 Faculty of Science, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2018) Bulathgama, B. E. A. U.; Wickramasinghe, I.; Wijesekara, I.; Somendrika, M. A. D.
Cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) is an important food source in tropical countries, and it is a readily available root crop variety in Sri Lanka as well. Yet processed cassava (flour) is underutilized. The objective of this study was to identify the effect of conventional and microwave heating on two selected cassava cultivars namely; Kirikawadi and Muthukawadi granulated flour pearls. The granulated cassava pearls were made by the moistening and mechanical shaping of the flour by adding 50% water by weight. Then the pearls of both cultivars were subjected to conventional heating in normal cooking oven at 1000C for 20 minutes, and microwave heating in mid power for 5 minutes. The obtained pearls were then analyzed for the texture profile analysis. The morphology of flour granules were observed by microscopic image projection, where the two cultivars showed no observable difference in their granular shapes. The two cultivars; Kirikawadi and Muthukawadi flour had an initial moisture content of 8.23% and 9.00% respectively and after moistening the moisture contents were 41.95% and 38.59% respectively. After the heat treatments, the texture profiles including hardness, deformation, adhesiveness, cohesiveness and springiness were analyzed for all the samples. According to the results, the highest hardness was obtained by microwave heating method for both cultivars. The hardness of conventionally heated varieties were 200.00 g for Kirikawadi and 235.00 g for Muthukawadi, and microwave heated varieties were 19780.00 g and 10390.00 g respectively. The deformation has changed with the heating method, where the deformation of both conventionally heated varieties varied, between 0.64 - 0.66 mm and microwave heated varieties showed 1.38 mm (Kirikawadi) and 1.90 mm (Muthukawadi). Other texture properties; adhesiveness, cohesiveness and springiness showed no significant variation (P>0.05) either with cultivar or heating method. According to the results of the study, the microwave heating is suggested to be more preferable over the conventional heating method, as modified forms of this type of starches have higher demand in the novel processed food industry.