Arrowroot Tuber, Alternative Source of Inulin
Based on data from the Ministry of Industry on 2011, Indonesia’s import value of inulin is US$ 306.5 million. Currently, Indonesia uses a lot of inulin as an additional nutrient for toddlers and children formula milk because of its ability to stimulate bone growth and the existence of good bacteria in the intestinal digestion. This becomes a big problem considering the weak rupiah exchange rate which has made the price of many goods to significantly increase.
The problem of inulin import and the needs to explore the natural resources motivated Sintia Intan Agsari, student of Department of Biochemistry, and Muhammad Daffa Fauzan, student of Department of Communication Science and Community Development, Bogor Agricultural University (IPB) to make a paper titled “Inulin Isolation from Arrowroot Tuber (Umbi Garut) as an Alternative Source of Inulin for Food and Milk Products.”
“This idea is inspired by my origin, Bringin, Ngawi, East Java, that is the production center of arrowroot tuber. Unfortunately, there is a declining spirit of farmers to keep planting arrowroot tuber because of its low price. After doing many literature studies, I finally could conclude that there is a lot of inulin content in the arrowroot tuber, which is needed as an additional nutrition in formula milk,” explained Intan.
According to Intan, arrowroot tuber has a high content of polysaccharides, so the inulin can be extracted maximally. The content of polysaccharides is the one that can show the inulin potential that can be produced. Through this innovative work, Intan and her friend Daffa Fauzan were awarded 1st Champion of National Scientific Writing Week at the University of Mataram, Lombok on November 22-25, 2018.
“Alhamdulillah we are very thankful. But truthfully, becoming a champion was not our initial goal. Our initial goal was to provide information, so it can motivate farmers to become more excited to plant this arrowroot tuber that is potential to reduce the industrial inulin import from other countries,” she said.
Intan hoped that this idea and innovation can become a step towards more comprehensive research in developing the local potency and to empower the farmers (CN)
