Thanh Tung Nguyen

This study evaluated the feasibility of using phosphorylated green banana flour (BF) as a functional ingredient for producing resistant‐starch (RS)‐enriched noodles, compared with phosphorylated green banana starch. Green banana flour and starch were chemically modified by phosphorylation and characterized for structural, physicochemical, and functional properties. Phosphorylation significantly increased resistant starch content, with phosphorylated green banana flour reaching 49.63%, representing a 1.8‐fold increase compared with native flour and exceeding that of phosphorylated starch. Modified samples exhibited improved thermal stability and reduced swelling, water solubility, and syneresis relative to untreated materials. Wheat noodles containing 10–40 wt% phosphorylated green banana flour or starch showed a substantial increase in resistant starch content, reaching approximately 41% at 40 wt% substitution. Cooking properties, including optimal cooking time, dry matter loss, and water absorption, were comparable between flour‐ and starch‐based formulations. However, phosphorylated green banana flour exhibited lower crystallinity (∼20%) than phosphorylated starch (∼32%), resulting in higher water uptake and increased noodle breakage, especially at high substitution levels. Phosphorylated green banana flour demonstrates strong potential for developing nutritionally enhanced noodles with high resistant starch content while retaining beneficial fiber and protein components, although improvements in textural stability are required.

Heavy metal pollution in soil is a global environmental issue due to its negative effects on human health, agricultural product quality, and the ecological environment. Therefore, it is crucial to choose a highly effective, low‐cost, and environmentally friendly technical solution to restore and rehabilitate heavy metal‐contaminated soil. This article presents the results of combining a well‐known invasive plant, Sphagneticola trilobata (L.) Pruski (STP), with superabsorbent polymer (SAP) to treat heavy metals (lead (Pb) and zinc (Zn))–contaminated soil at a mineral waste dump in Thai Nguyen province, Vietnam. SAP was applied at 0–0.8 g/kg soil. The heavy metal concentrations in the soil and plants were determined after 30, 60, and 90 days. The antioxidant and antibacterial activities of STP were assessed after 90 days. STP grew strongly, yielded a high biomass, and showed improved antioxidant and antibacterial activity as well as heavy metal treatment efficiency when combined with SAP for 90 days. The application of SAP at 0.6–0.8 g/kg soil led to the best results, including the highest treatment efficiency for Pb and Zn (p < 0.05).

This study focuses on the synthesis of superabsorbent polymers (SAPs) from jackfruit seed starch and acrylic monomers using the frontal polymerization (FP) method. Acrylic acid (AA) and acrylamide (AM) were grafted onto jackfruit seed starch with varying initiator contents (0.5, 0.75, 1, and 1.5 wt%) in the presence of MBA as a cross-linker (0.1 wt% relative to AA) to produce SAPs. The effect of external heat source temperature was also investigated. Using an external heat source at 1200 °C and a PPS initiator content of 1% resulted in SAPs JFSS-g-AA and JFSS-g-AM with water absorption capacities (WAC) of 415 g g⁻¹ and 298 g g⁻¹, respectively. In comparison, the conventional method yielded WACs of 364 g g⁻¹ and 273 g g⁻¹ for the same polymers. The synthesized polymers were characterized using FTIR, SEM, TGA, and XRD. The grafted polymers exhibited superior properties, including shorter reaction times and lower costs than conventional methods, as FP requires only an initial energy input to initiate polymerization, with no further energy needed. FP samples achieved reaction times of 19–21 min, significantly shorter than those of conventional samples (49 and 46 min, respectively). An increase in the external heat source temperature raised the front temperature, with a recorded peak of 126 °C. The frontal velocity was proportional to the initiator content, influencing the propagation of the reaction front. Compared to conventional polymerization, FP produced polymers with higher absorption capacity. These findings suggest that FP is a cost-effective and time-efficient alternative for synthesizing graft polymers from acrylic monomers and starch.

The development of Green banana (GB) starch in prebiotic foods to address health problems such as diabetes. It is modified by phosphate cross‐linking to increase the resistant starch content, improve functional properties, and reduce digestible starch consumption. The starch is modified using a mixture of sodium trimetaphosphate (STMP) and sodium tripolyphosphate (STPP) with 6 to 12 wt%ratios in the presence of sodium sulfate. The results showed an increase in phosphorus content from 0.18% to 0.45% corresponding to the increase in sodium trimetaphosphate/sodium tripolyphosphate ratios. Resistant starch reached 60 wt% after increasing the concentration of phosphate agent above 10 wt% and rapidly digestible starch decreased significantly. Accordingly, the physicochemical properties of starch changed significantly. Phosphate cross‐linking led to disruption of the crystalline structure of starch granules and fragmentation, reducing enthalpy and increasing gelatinization temperature. The oil and water absorption and freeze‐thaw stability of treated starch increased. While water absorption and solubility index of starch decreased significantly as the result of phosphate cross‐linking. Modified starch is used for the production of rice noodles. From 10 to 30 wt% of 10P modified starch mixed, cooking fracture rate is not more than 10% and resistant starch content is over 41 wt%.

Starch from jackfruit seeds shows potential for use in food production processes with high starch content. Modification of jackfruit seed starch to increase the resistant starch content makes it a promising candidate for prebiotics in the food industry. This study chemically denatures starch through carboxymethylation at different concentrations of sodium hydroxide to investigate the effect of carboxymethyl substitution on digestible properties of the starch. Carboxymethylation exhibited a high degree of substitution from 0.28–0.57% as a function of the concentration of sodium hydroxide (5–10 wt%). The treatment enhanced the improvement of swelling, water solubility, and water/oil absorption. The resistant starch content increased from ~ 21 to ~ 39.67%. The degree of carboxymethyl group substitution was increased by increasing the NaOH concentration. However, the high degree of substitution showed structural deformation of the starch granules with a decrease in crystallinity from about 35 to 1% by SEM and XRD. The degree of carboxymethyl substitution increased resistant starch content, reduced rapidly digestible starch, and negligible impact to SDS. The results showed that jackfruit seed starch treated with 10% by weight of NaOH was the optimal value that increased carboxymethyl substitution to 0.57% and resistant starch content to ~ 40%. This concentration was also optimal for the functional properties of starch with the highest values of swelling degree (~ 27 g/g), water solubility (~ 50%), freeze-thaw stability (~ 20% of syneresis after 4 freeze-thaw cycles), and oil and water absorption (150% of oil absorption and 180% of water absorption).

In this article, a novel oil‐absorbent polymer was synthesized by graft polymerization of lauryl methacrylate (LMA) onto water hyacinth (WH) using 2,2′‐azobisisobutyronitrile (AIBN) as initiator and divinyl benzene (DVB) as a crosslinking agent. The effects of initiator content, LMA content, reaction temperature, reaction time, and crosslinker content on the superabsorbent polymer were investigated. The prepared graft copolymer WH‐ g ‐LMA was analyzed using FTIR, SEM, XRD, and TGA. In the presence of the better cross‐linker DVB (1.5%) and contact time of about 25 min, the maximal Q (oil sorption capacity) of co‐polymer towards crude and Soybean oils is 23.68 and 25.72 g g ⁻¹ , respectively. The Q is reduced when sorbent dosage increased, but it increases with increasing the temperature and reaches a maximum of 40 °C. The reusability of co‐polymer is characteristic of 7 sorption/desorption cycles.

The effects of oxidation on physicochemical characteristics of thermoplastic canna starch were investigated. Thermoplastic starch (TPS) of native canna starch (CS) and oxidized canna starch (OCS) were prepared with different contents of sodium hypochlorite (1%, 3%, and 5% w/w) and 30 wt% of glycerol as plasticizer. Native starch‐based TPS (NTPS) and oxidized starch‐based TPS (OTPS) samples were tested for physicochemical, morphological, thermal, and mechanical properties. In OCS, the content of carboxyl and carbonyl groups increased with the increase in the content of oxidant, and this contributed to the improvement in CS plasticization efficiency. SEM images indicated that the morphology of OTPS samples was smoother than that of NTPS. The stronger interaction between OCS and plasticizer in OTPS was indicated by FTIR spectra. XRD confirmed that the crystallite type of starch was changed and their decrease in crystallinity is attributed to effects of both oxidation and plasticization. The carbonyl and carboxyl content had a large impact on T _g and Δ H _g of OTPS. The higher content of these groups in OCS leads to the lower T _g and the lower Δ H _g , which could make the plasticization easier. Due to the better plasticization in OTPS, their mechanical properties and thermal stability were enhanced.