Oxalate content of Amorphophallus muelleri

One of the major problem associated with the consumption of porang is its oxalate content.
This factor impact the usage of porang as a food crop. Calcium oxalate present in fine crystals
in porang, which causes etching of fingers and pricking sensation of tongue and throat
(Bradbury and Nixon 1998, Lewu et al. 2010).
Calcium oxalate (CaC2O4) is a major component of kidney stone, which high intake may
reduce the calcium availability in the body and this may be an increased risk factor for
women who require greater amount of calcium in their diets (Singh et al. 2018). Dietary
oxalate has been known to complex with calcium, magnesium and iron leading to the
formation of insoluble oxalate salt and resulting in oxalate stone. Oxalates also interfere with
the utilization of minerals making them unavailable or reduced in the body. Apart from
acting as irritant, oxalate is considered to be anti-nutritional and toxic. Ingestion of higher
amount of oxalate (2 g) can be fatal to humans (Libert and Franceschi 1987). The crystals of
oxalates can also get deposited in kidney and cause renal stones, leading to renal failure.
About 75% of kidney stones are composed of oxalates and consumption of foods containing
oxalate increase urinary oxalate content to variable extent is necessary to prevent oxalate
related maladies. For patients with kidney stone, dietary intake of oxalates should be
restricted to 40-50mg/day. Therefore, removal of oxalate will benefit in better utilization of
Araceae plants for food and feed purposes
Calcium oxalate content of porang ranged from 5.97-15.28 mg/100g during different
stages. The highest calcium oxalate content was found at 0 days after storage (15.28
mg/100g) and 90 days after storage (12.40 mg/100g), respectively. The average value of
calcium oxalate content is <50mg which does not pose problem to human digestion.
This result agrees well with the study results reported by Fasset, 1973.
The main problems on the development of porang flour were due to the fact that the after
processed flour has low levels of glucomannan and high presence of calcium oxalate. It is
clear that improving the glucomannan and reducing the calcium oxalate in porang flour is
very important to enable it to be used in food manufacturing.
Recovery of glucomannan was conducted by the addition of porang flour to ethanol solution
or leaching. Water and organic solvent as media, which have miscible properties, can be used
in purifying the porang flour. Ethanol solvent has volatile properties, colorless, and non-toxic
to human life. Ethanol will not propagate porang flour expansion. To date, there is a lack of
information on the method for the recovery of porang flour with high glucomannan content.