Sago palm (Metroxylon sagu Rottb.) as a new industrial source for value-added product

Abstract

More than 2 million hectares of sago palm growing areas are present in Asia and the Pacific Region, most of which are underutilized. Sago palm is a potential biomass source for starch, ligno-cellulosic material and polyphenols. At present, a wet milling process involving disintegration of sago pith, separation, washing and drying of sago starch is employed. The abundance of the renewable biomass reaches the threshold feasibility of setting up integrated milling industries utilising by-products of starch processing and a broad spectrum of high technology-based value-added products and their derivatives. In view of the recent technological development and innovations on sago technology, sago palm is a potential new industrial source to produce a high-quality starch using an integrated mill approach (refining and by-product utilization) for the generation of highly value-added sago-based products. Thus, the adoption of the new refined sago starch standard MS2410 is an essential step in order to achieve the threshold starch quality needed to transform to the highly value-added downstream sago products. The broad spectrum of high-technology sago industries includes food grade sago starch, refined grade sago starch, maltodextrin/cyclodextrin, modified sago starch, lactic acid production, food thickener/food gel, adhesives, feed mill, fibreboard, bakery & confectioneries, extruded snack, and biotechnology-based industry for enzyme production (bioextraction, biobleaching/washing and amylase).