A group of students at YSU Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences produce a cereal product made of Inocarpus fagifer or known as Tahitian Chesnut. It is to raise community awareness for food varieties. The nuts of the plant are often left unconsumed or unprocessed to be a valuable product.
They are Lailatul Fitriyah and Dwi Nugrohowati (Biology Education Study Program), Felita Aprilla Zora (Physics Education Study Program), Mariana Ramelan (Mathematics Education Study Program) Matematika and Niken Ambar Pratiwi (Chemistry Study Program).
Together, they process the nuts into a more valuable product. Inocarpus fagifer has edible nuts when boiled until the nuts are soft enough to chew. However, the nuts and the leaves are commonly treated to be compost.
“Nuts of Inocarpus fagifer contains high calorie, protein and fat. Considering the carbohydrate present in those nuts, we first process them into powder and then mixed the powder with flour as the basic ingredients of the cereal product,” Dwi Nugrohowati explained.
The group also expect that the cereal product can soon be introduced to the market and become an alternative for food consumption.