Diseño de un proceso para la obtención de almidón a partir de la Papa China (Colocasia esculenta).

Abstract

An extraction process of starch from taro (Colocasia esculenta) cultivated in the Amazon Region of Ecuador was designed to increase starch import and to reinforce industrialization of this raw material, which is scarce or non-existent, resulting in additional revenues and diminishing the waste of raw material. Of the material physicochemical analysis results, the initial design conditions was established. Having reviewed literature, several methods were posed, yet the best one was as follows: storage, classification, cleaning, peeling, chopping, blending, filtering, decanting, drying and milling. Besides, the control parameters were established. The tuber was chopped into small pieces (down to 12 mm in diameter). The particle size ranged from 0.177 to 0.210 mm in the wet-milling process. Fiber was passed through a mesh size 80. Slurry was decanted for 15 minutes, and then it was dried at 70 ° C. The refined starch moisture content was determined as 13%, and refined starch fineness was 0.149 mm. A physicochemical and organoleptic analysis of the taro (Colocasia esculenta) starch was carried out after the extraction process. The results showed that in addition food use, taro has industrial applications. The was 19%, that is, $ 0.19 in profits were generated for each invested dollar. Thus, it can be concluded that the implementation of this process is feasible, and it will generate profits for the owner of the enterprise and the farmers that cultivate this tuber.