Malt caramel from tubers of Cyperus esculentus

This work was done to ascertain the feasibility of obtaining caramel from malted tubers of Cyperus esculentus. The tubers of C. esculentus were partially germinated for 10 days and sun-dried for 24 h. The sun-dried samples were then kilned at 70°C for 24 h and at 120°C for 5 h for further caramelization. The kilned samples were finely crushed, infused with deionized water at 60°C and the malt extract heated up to 127°C, to give a brown-black syrupy substance, caramel, with specific gravity 38.97±0.77°Bé. Reducing sugars as -glucose in the unmalted tubers before and additional sugars after hydrolysis for 30 min were 24.75±4.54 and 64.80±2.28 mg/g of sample, and in the green malt 123.13±4.28 and 82.07±4.13 mg/g of sample, respectively.