Rapid starch measurement for evaluating food taste and industrial application with spectroscopy

2022 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 21K14948
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Early-Career Scientists
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: Basic Section 41040:Agricultural environmental engineering and agricultural information engineering-related
• Research Institution: Kobe University
• Principal Investigator: Nakajima Shusaku 神戸大学, 農学研究科, 助教 (00896938)
• Project Period (FY): 2021-04-01 – 2023-03-31
• Keywords: デンプン / ラマン分光 / 農産物 / 食味 / 産業用途

Outline of Final Research Achievements

In the present study, we measured starch content in agricultural produces using Raman technology. Because Raman spectra in the low wavenumber regions are sensitive to a molecular structure, we measured cutting surface of banana and selectivity observed Raman peaks attributed to starch which has a crystalline structure even in agricultural produces. In addition, the Raman peak at 469 cm-1 was correlated with starch content measured by a chemical analysis. Although a conventional enzyme method takes several days for starch quantification, measurement time is just several second in our Raman approach. These results indicated that Raman technology can be a rapid analytical method for starch quantification. However, high fluorescence masked Raman signals without cutting, because peel has several fluorescence components. Therefore, a restriction of high florescence is required for a next step.

Free Research Field

農業工学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

デンプンは農産物の食味や産業用途を決める重要な成分であるが、巨大分子であるため既存の分析技術で簡便に測定できなかった。これに対して、本研究成果によりラマン分光を用いて農産物断面を測定することでデンプンをわずか数十秒で簡易測定できることが示された。現状、蛍光物質の影響で皮ごとの非破壊計測を達成するにはさらなる工夫が必要となるが、低蛍光の農産物や断面を測定することで、収穫時のデンプン量から『農産物の食味や産業用途』を評価できることから、高付加価値化の推進や産業の発展に寄与するだけでなく、これまでデンプン量が把握できないために起きていた食品ロスの削減にも貢献していく技術となり得る。