Students win prize with banana-root cracker

Students win prize with banana-root cracker

Sri Wahyuni, The Jakarta Post, Yogyakarta

Bananas are known to be rich in nutrients, but most people were
probably unaware of the benefits of its root until three senior
high school students from Yogyakarta found a use for it.

Arko Jatmiko Wicaksono, Shaum Shiyan and Jalu Tejo Kumoro of
state-run SMUN 6 won an international prize from the World
Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) for inventing fried
banana-root crackers and the equipment to produce it.

The WIPO is an international organization dedicated to helping
countries ensure that inventors and intellectual property are
protected worldwide, and that new inventions are recognized and
rewarded. The WIPO currently has 179 member countries.

The three students' invention was a runner-up in the national
competition held by the Directorate of Youth Affairs at the
Ministry of National Education late last month, defeating scores
of university students and graduates.

"We never had an ambition to win the national competition,
when we were selected as one of the 12 finalists out of 364
applicants. We just did the best we could," said second-year
Arko, who shared the Rp 10 million (US$1,176) cash prize with his
classmates and has been nominated by the ministry for a foreign
exchange program in Canada next year.

He said his invention was accidental, as he was trying to
produce banana-root alcohol when he was experimenting in
February. After the fermentation process, however, he found that
the banana root contained more water than alcohol.

"Just for fun, I tasted the boiled root. To my surprise, it
tasted good," said Arko. The discovery made him think of
producing chips from the banana root.

The second trial also failed -- the root crumbled every time
he tried to flatten it into a thin disc for frying. He then
thought of making crackers instead, and succeeded.

Arko went to the library to research the nutritional content
of the banana root and sent his crackers to a laboratory for
further analysis.

When he told his teacher that he wanted to enter his invention
in a business innovation competition in July, his teacher
suggested that he also submit the equipment needed to make the
crackers.

Arko thus asked help from Shaum, a third-year student, and
Jalu, a second-year, to produce a pulper. The pulper mashes the
banana root and extracts the inedible fiber to produce a paste
that will be dried and fried to make the final cracker.

"If you ask us why we won, we really don't know. Only, during
the presentation, we told the jurors the crackers were very rich
in fiber. It has a higher fiber content than tempeh," Arko said.

Some 100 grams of tempeh soybean cake, he said, contained 13
grams of fiber, while the same quantity of banana-root crackers
have 21.23 grams, enough to fulfill the recommended daily intake
of fiber.

Ideally, he said, a person should consume between 20 and 35
grams of fiber a day. Research, however, showed that most
Indonesians only consume between 10 and 15 grams of fiber a day.

"By mass-producing the cracker, hopefully we can help cope
with the fiber deficiency that more and more people in the world
are facing," said Arko.

Born in Sleman, Yogyakarta, on Sept. 20, 1987, Arko is an
active student researcher, as are Shaum, born on May 28, 1986,
and Jalu, born on Oct. 2, 1986.

Arko said the achievement would motivate his team to conduct
more research projects and participate in more competitions.

"We still have a lot of research ideas in our heads. We hope
we can contribute a great deal to the country and the people
through our research activities," said Arko.

Among his next projects is research on millipedes, locally
known as luwing.

Instead of applying for a patent, the trio of young
researchers plan to give their banana-root cracker invention to
Gadjah Mada University or to the Indonesian Institute of Sciences
(LIPI) in the interest of the general public.

"We don't care who holds the intellectual property rights, as
long as it goes to an Indonesian or an Indonesian institution,"
Arko said.