Researchers of Banaras Hindu University (BHU), Delhi University and the Institute of Medical Sciences have developed a flavoring compound using coconut coir which claims to have antioxidant properties as well as antimicrobial and anti-cancerous qualities in it.

According to the BHU officials, the findings of the study have been published in journals like Bioresource Technology, Food Biotechnology and Applied Food Biotechnology. The work will be highly beneficial for the food processing and pharma industries.

BHU said that the team of researchers in its study used temple waste coconut coir as a base material for the fermentative production of food flavour.

Dr Abhishek Dutt Tripathi, Department of Dairy Science and Food Technology, Institute of Agricultural Sciences said that cities like Varanasi, which have great religious and spiritual significance, produce massive amounts of temple waste which has large quantities of coconut coir.

“This waste though biodegradable, if not regulated properly, poses a threat to the environment and serves as the breeding ground for numerous microbial diseases. There is a vast scope for using coconut coir as it is rich in lignocellulosic biomass,” he said.

He said that there have been studies describing the different approaches to converting coconut coir waste’s lignocellulosic biomass into value-added aromatics.

“We have attempted to take this work a step forward to prepare edible flavouring compound using lignocellulosic biomass of the coconut coir with the help of Bacillus aryabhattai, which has been done for the first time,” he said.

The research team comprised Dr Veena Paul, Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Dr Vibhav Gautam, Centre for Experimental Medicine and Surgery, Institute of Medical Sciences, and Dr Aparna Agarwal, University of Delhi.

They said that during the study coconut coir was subjected to pretreatment and then dried for 72 hours at 50 ℃. It was then ground into fine powder. After the hydro-distillation of the coconut coir, it was digested at 100±2 ℃ for an hour and then filtered and acidified to separate lignin and cellulose.

According to the researchers, the extracted lignin was then subjected to fermentation using Bacillus aryabhattai. After fermentation, the broth was filtered, and the residue, known as the supernatant, was transferred to a separating funnel and extracted with ethyl acetate.

“It was then centrifuged for 15 min, following which all the organic fractions were collected and concentrated using a rotary vacuum evaporator. The recovered flavour was tested for cell line study, which proved anti-cancerous activities against breast cancer,” they said.