About This Project

Due to increasing reliance on grain as a source of carbohydrates, shortages can occur if supply is interrupted. Learning more about carbohydrate alternatives during periods of uncertainty can increase the availability of foods and value-added products. In Hawaii, many tropical plants contain alternative sources of carbohydrates that have not been fully explored. Using mycology and fermentation we plan to increase the bioavailable carbohydrates to humans from these tropical plants.

Ask the Scientists

What is the context of this research?

The main goal of this project is to investigate the carbohydrate (sugars) availability in various fermented preparations by employing fungi. Aspergillus oryzae is a well-known fungus used to break down many raw materials, including wastewater. If these fungi can thrive off starch as the sole carbon source, they must produce lots of very efficient amylases (enzymes that break down sugar), by introducing these amylases into our bioreactor we predict that there will be an increased breakdown of unique plant material.

What is the significance of this project?

There are many sources of sugar (cellulose) that are considered indigestible by humans. We plan to utilize mycology and fermentation to render those carbohydrates usable in the form of fuels and other value-added products. This has broad implications such as farming - i.e. the conversion of unpalatable sugars to usable forms as animal feed.

Tropical environments have lots of unique fruits and sources of sugar. In addition, not much is known about how fungi break down carbohydrates in tropical environments. These answers will provide additional resources and methods to help communities that are heavily reliant on imported grains for nutrition. Increased access to carbohydrates helps to feed the world, stabilize economies, and drive innovation.

What are the goals of the project?

The goal is to test and refine methods employed in home and commercial mycology. This would include testing the capacity/efficiency of fungal growth chambers, together with advancing the interface of mycology/fermentation in the production of accessible sugars.

Upon construction of the chamber, verifying desired internal climates, large-scale growth of fungi will be attempted to further optimize production yields. This would be directly compared to fungal production in the commercial (Mella) growth chamber.

Once this goal is achieved, the project would then examine the viability of the different plant, root, and fruit materials through the use of the enzymes produced by the fungi for sugar production.