Phenolic Content, Antioxidant Capacity and Compound Profiling of Extracts from Raw Sago Starch Fermentation with Endophytes

Nurul Aida Qarina, Mohd Razali (2024) Phenolic Content, Antioxidant Capacity and Compound Profiling of Extracts from Raw Sago Starch Fermentation with Endophytes. Masters thesis, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak.

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Abstract

Escalating prevalence of free radicals in the modern environment, driven by factors such as pollution and unhealthy lifestyles, poses a significant health concern. There is a need to explore the potential benefits and applications of antioxidants in mitigating the oxidative damage caused by free radicals and their role in promoting overall well-being. In the last decade, an increasing number of research findings and studies have addressed strategies to combat oxidative stress. This surge in interest stems from concerns regarding the potential health risks associated with synthetic drugs, which can contribute to silent yet perilous conditions like heart disease, hypertension, and cancer. As a result, there has been a growing exploration of natural-based materials as potential alternatives. Endophytic fungi, residing within the tissues of various plant species, have emerged as a promising alternative source of antioxidants that exhibit analogous properties to their host plants. This unique symbiotic relationship holds immense potential for the extraction of antioxidant compounds, offering new avenues for harnessing nature's own defences against oxidative stress. To implement this, one of the alternative ways is through value-added food. Antioxidant-enriched value-added food products achieved via innovative fermentation techniques have gained prominence as a sustainable approach to enhance both nutritional content and shelf-life, offering promising prospects for healthier dietary choices and reduced food waste. Despite an annual production of 14,000 tonnes of underutilized sago starch, this valuable resource remains largely untapped, presenting a pressing challenge for sustainable utilization and economic development, mainly in the region of Sarawak and in some small areas in Johor. This study aims to investigate innovative approaches to maximize the utilization of sago starch through fermentation, thereby unlocking its full potential for various applications in the food and industrial sectors. In this study, traditionally processed sago starch is being used rather than industrially processed sago starch. The latter often loses crucial nutritional factors during its processing, whereas the former, known as raw sago starch (RSS) “lemantak” holds promise as a more nutritionally valuable option. Consequently, this research aims to explore the presence of potential phenolic compounds with antioxidant properties in fermented raw sago starch, offering an alternative avenue for extracting nutraceuticals from this resource. Additionally, employment of microbial fermentation with fungal endophytes to further enhance the production of phenolic compounds in traditionally processed RSS “lemantak”. Also, to fully maximise the potential of the fermented RSS “lemantak”, optimisation process was also carried out by manipulating several parameters such as effect of fungal endophytes consortia, effect of fermentation time, effect of extraction time and effect of solvent extraction. It is crucial that these parameters were manipulated to maximise the potential for phenolic compound production from fermented RSS “lemantak”. All selection was made based on the total phenolic and antioxidant profiles. It was found out that the best fungal consortia were consortium of Aspergillus niger and Penicillium chermesinum (AP) under solid-state fermentation condition. It was also found out the best fermentation period was on Day 7 while the best extraction time was 24 hrs of incubation under water bath extraction method at 50℃. Nevertheless, the best extraction solvent was methanol as compounds were more soluble in a more polar solvent. Extractives were also analysed through GC-MS method to identify the contributed bioactive compounds. Compounds such as Eicosane and 1-Eicosanol were found to be the most dominant in the extracts reported to have both antioxidant and antimicrobial activity. This opens the potential of fermented RSS into becoming new value-added food, harnessing the inherent nutritional benefits of sago starch and its newfound antioxidant capacity. As exploration in diverse applications of endophytic fungi continues in food science and nutrition, our findings contribute to a deeper understanding of sustainable food processing and functional ingredient discovery.

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