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.