Abstract: Detailed studies have been carried out on Kithul (Caryota urens) native and modified flour as twopre-gelatinized treatments (PGI and PGII), acid modified (AC) and dextrinized modification (DX) flourtreatments to compare gelatinization properties and amylose content. Among all treatments, PG-II (modifiedwith excess water at 75°C heat treatment) showed significant changes with higher gelatinizationtemperatures (TO = 74.02°C and TP = 80.51°C) and lower Conclusion temperature (TC = 90.04°C),gelatinization enthalpy (5.78 J/g) and amylose content (25.36). This study provides evidence that PGII is themost suitable modification treatment for native Kithul flour for introducing new flour source with an applicableform to meet specific needs with a view to effort expand application within the food industry.Key words: Kithul, (Caryota urens), modified flour, gelatinization properties, amylose content, hydrothermaltreatment
Enhancement of carbon storage in tree biomass through the establishment of manmade forests is considered as a viable option to reduce atmospheric CO2 levels. Therefore the present study was conducted to estimate the biomass and carbon contents of the main stem of Tectona grandis Lin. f. (Teak) plantations in Sri Lanka using a non-destructive sampling technique. Harvesting of T. grandis is scheduled in Sri Lanka after 35 years of planting and therefore it is considered as a long rotation species. Allometric models were built to predict the variation of stem biomass and carbon of T. grandis with age and stem volume. A separatemodel was also built to predict the stem carbon change with the stem biomass.
23 T. grandis plantations were selected covering all three climatic zones, viz. dry,intermediate and wet of Sri Lanka for necessary data collection. Breast height diameter and height were measured for the sampled trees. Stem volume was calculated by a volume function which used diameter and height as the explanatory variables. Stem biomass and carbon contents were calculated converting those values of core samples obtained from the trees using a tree increment borer.
Results revealed that the average stem carbon content is 55% from the biomass. However,there were variations of this value for certain plantations of different ages. All allometricmodels built in this study had high R2 values which were over 90%.