Rosaly V. Manaois

Rice wine lees is a major by‐product generated in the Philippine rice wine or tapuy production. Flour was developed using tapuy lees and used as a functional ingredient in polvoron. Preparation of flour involved washing of the pressed lees, filtration, sterilization, drying and grinding to a fine powder. The water activity of the sample was 4 cfu/g total plate count and 2.50 cfu/g mold count. The flour had high crude protein (45.03 ± 0.14%) and dietary fiber (13.10 ± 0.08%) levels. When used in polvoron, up to 50% (w/w) of lees can be substituted to all‐purpose flour with minimal effect on quality. Using 33% lees, significant improvement in crude protein content was noted, without adversely affecting the taste and overall sensory quality of the product. Results demonstrated the feasibility of producing a functional food ingredient using a major by‐product of tapuy production.Practical Applications: Lees is a nutritious, but underutilized, by‐product of rice wine manufacture. In tapuy production, a large volume of lees (about 27% of the weight of raw rice) is generated and is merely discarded. The use of lees in the development of value‐added food products will be a step toward making nutrient‐dense foods available to consumers, while addressing waste management problem from rice wine production. Results of this study would provide manufacturers of rice wine a valuable resource to make their process more efficient and productive. This will also serve as a basis to further explore the nutritional quality of rice wine lees and its potential applications in other food products.

Obesity is a growing global public health dilemma. The objective of this project is to develop and validate a screening mechanism for bioactive compounds that may reduce body fat and promote health. Resistant starch (RS) reduces body fat in rodents. Amylose starch that has a high content of RS, endogenous compounds obtained from the ceca of amylose starch fed mice (fermented RS), and individual short-chain fatty acids (SCFA) were tested. The Caenorhabditis elegans model and Nile red staining were selected to determine the intestinal fat deposition response to bioactive components. The fluorescence intensity of Nile red was reduced to 76.5% (amylose starch), 78.8% (fermented RS), 63.6% (butyrate), or 28−80% (SCFAs) of controls, respectively (P < 0.001). The reduced intestinal fat deposition suggests reduced food intake or increased energy expenditure. C. elegans is a practical animal model to screen for bioactive compounds that may prevent or treat obesity.