Coimbatore: City-based Shanthanu Krishnakumar has won first place in Canada's '3Minute Thesis competition' and also the People's Choice Award for his presentation. The 23-year old Masters candidate at the Department of Plant Agriculture, University of Guelph, Canada, presented an animated explanation of a plant-derived compound that extends the shelf life of fruits and could impact food supply in developing countries.
As many as 42 graduate schools from different universities in all disciplines as well as Ph.D students competed. Around 2, 500 students participated in the competition. The thesis of former student of TNAU, Coimbatore, on 'Extension of post-harvest shelf life of peaches/nectarines, using the PLD inhibiting hexanal technology' had entered the finals of the Canadian Association for Graduate Studies 11 Canadian 3MT Finalists contest in May 2017.
"I was able to do it under the supervision of Professor Gopi Palyath who discovered Hexanal in early 2000's, Professor Jay Subramanian and Professor Al Sullivan. Professor Gopi is a biochemist, who is researching on the different pathways occurring during ripening he found Hexanal as an effective inhibitor for the lipid degradation pathway.
I came up with the right concentration that works and I am studying how hexanal manipulated genes and how it works in the plant cell. I am also studying on the changes in aroma and flavour in the nectarine due to Hexanal application," said Shanthanu.
'Hexanal' is a compound which is naturally present within the plant that can be used to protect shelf life of the tender ripened fruits like mangoes.
His research focuses on using various chemical treatments especially, using hexanal during both pre and post-harvest stages to increase their shelf life.
