IIT Guwahati develops new method to produce sugar substitute ‘Xylitol’ from sugarcane waste.

• Researchers at IIT Guwahati have created a fermentation process that uses ultrasound to safely generate Xylitol from sugarcane bagasse, the byproduct of crushing sugar cane.
• This approach gets over the operational constraints of chemical synthesis and the time lags of traditional fermentation.
• The use of ultrasound during the fermentation process not only reduced the time of fermentation to 15 hours, but also increased the yield of the product by almost 20%.

Xylitol: Requirement for Safe Sweetners

• There has been an increase in the use of safe alternative sweeteners as awareness of the negative effects of white sugar (sucrose) on individuals with diabetes and general health has grown.
• A sugar alcohol generated from plants called xylitol may have anti-obesogenic and anti-diabetic properties in addition to being a mild prebiotic and guarding teeth against caries.

Xylitol: Research Team

• The research team includes Dr. Belachew Zegale Tizazu and Dr. Kuldeep Roy, who co-authored the research articles, and was headed by Professor VS Moholkar of the Department of Chemical Engineering at IIT Guwahati.
• Two peer-reviewed publications, Bioresource Technology and Ultrasonics Sonochemistry, both published this research.
• Advantages of this new procedure: The use of ultrasound during the fermentation process not only reduced the time of fermentation to 15 hours (as opposed to almost 48 hours in conventional processes), but also increased the yield of the product by almost 20%, according to Professor VS Moholkar, Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Guwahati.