Jayanta Bhattacharya
An alumnus of Oxford University worked at the New Delhi-based National Institute of Plant Genome Research (NIPGR) to find a solution for preventing wastage of fruits and vegetables by delaying their ripening process.
The solution that Dr Jagadis Gupta Kapuganti, scientist and innovator, has found will help farmers tremendously in minimising losses and in increasing the shelf life of fruits and vegetables. For this piece of research, Kapuganti was bestowed with the India-UK Achievers Honour last month in London.
National Indian Students and Alumni Union (NISAU) UK in partnership with the British Council and the UK’s Department for International Trade (DIT) organised a programme to celebrate 75th anniversary of India’s independence and India-UK educational ties. The awards were given on this occasion to mark the achievements of 75 young Indian students and alumni who had pursued a British programme of study.
Perishable products
Fruits and vegetables provide essential nutrients for human body. But they are also among the most perishable agricultural products. Every year, farmers growing them face losses due to lack of proper storage and transportation facilities.
Kapuganti led a research team from NIPGR to find a solution to this problem. The group developed a technology that considerably delays the ripening process. It helps enhance the shelf-life of fruits and vegetables by regulating a gaseous plant hormone called ethylene which regulates the ripening process.
Plant genius
Kapuganti is a scientist at DBT-NIPGR in Delhi. He has received several awards and fellowships, including the Marie Curie Fellowship, Max Planck Fellowship, Ramalingaswami Fellowship, AAB member UK, Innovative Young Biotechnology Award, and BIRAC-BIG grant.
About his latest achievement, Kapuganti says, “As a fruit or vegetable ripens more, it becomes softer and is easily bruised. It is susceptible to disease or other spoilage causing agents.” Mango, banana, custard apple, fig are among the fruits that ripen fast and bruise easily. After harvesting, it is difficult to store or transport such produce. But the indigenously developed prototype has already been successful in enhancing the shelf life of such produce.
Many of the chemical constituents naturally present in stored foods spontaneously react, causing loss of colour, flavour, texture, and nutritional value. Also, certain enzyme-activated reactions can occur in foods in storage. This leads to discoloration, softening, etc.
Path to new shelf-life
Kapuganti started working on a novel solution for enhancing the shelf-life of fruits in 2019 and established a startup, Fruvetech Pvt Ltd, in 2021. The startup has been supported by Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC) under Biotechnology Ignition grant and incubated at FITT, IIT Delhi.
According to him, nitric oxide is produced by oxidative and reductive pathways in plants. “We discovered the pathway and conditions which can stimulate nitric oxide production from leaves. We made a formula which can stimulate nitric oxide production from leaves,” he shares.
“We found our formula could increase shelf life in tomatoes up to 10 days, custard apple by 3-4 days, banana and mango to seven, and pineapple by 10 days,” informs Kapuganti. The method, he says, has been successfully tested on button mushroom and broccoli also.
