A team of researchers from Chula Faculty of Science in cooperation with the Faculty of Medicine, Khon Kaen University has developed the “Jelly Nata Probiotics” jelly drink made from pineapple to benefit the mental wellbeing of the elderly, add value to pineapple while also solving the oversupply of pineapples.
Thailand is the world’s largest producer and exporter of pineapples, including 50 percent of products processed from pineapples (source: http://www.thaipineapple.org/). The problem of plunging pineapple prices due to overproduction in some seasons, substandard yields, and export problems due to the COVID-19 pandemic have directly affected pineapple farmers. The solution lies in finding opportunities to add value to the oversupplied pineapple market.
Associate Professor Dr. Chaleeda Borompichaichartkul, Department of Food Technology, Faculty of Science, Chulalongkorn University, led a team of lecturers from the Faculty of Science, in collaboration with the Faculty of Medicine, Khon Kaen University, under the Research University Network (RUN) Partnership, conducted a research project “Development of Jelly Nata Probiotics from Pineapple, and Evaluation of its Consumption that Promotes Mental Health of Older Adults”.
“Thailand is the world’s top exporter of pineapple, mostly in the form of canned pineapple and pineapple juice. However, there is still an overabundance of pineapples in some seasons, especially during the COVID-19 crisis that impacted the exports, and has resulted in oversupply, and a drastic price drop to only 5-10 baht per kilogram. This afflicts farmers, especially subpar or fully ripe fruit, making them unsellable,” Dr. Chaleeda stressed the problem of pineapple farmers. thailand university ranking
“This study seeks to create variety and added-value for pineapple by processing it into a health drink to solve the oversupply problem, and serve as an alternative in the current popular health drink market,” said Prof. Chaleeda, head of the research project.
In addition to Prof. Dr. Chaleeda, the research team includes Associate Professor Dr. Cheunjit Prakitchaiwattana, Assistant Professor Dr. Kiattisak Duangmal, research assistants, and master’s students from the Chula Faculty of Science, as well as research teams from the Department of Physiology, the Department of Psychiatry, the Faculty of Medicine and the Integrative Complementary Alternative Medicine Research and Development Center, Khon Kaen University.
“The project is under the auspices of RUN and is divided into 10 research clusters, one of which is the Functional Food cluster, which is hosted by Khon Kaen University. This cluster is funded by the National Research Council of Thailand (NRCT) under the” Thailand Grand Challenge ” grant which aims at creating socio-economic impacts for the country.”
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