With a desire to create healthy and environmentally friendly products, two groups of students from the Da Nang University of Science and Technology have successfully produced tea and chocolate from star gooseberry trees, as well as microbial bags from cassava flour.

The ACIDUS team presented the project on making tea and coffee from star gooseberry trees at the contest “BIOSARTUP 2023”. Photo: NVCC

Trinh Minh Tam, leader of the ACIUDS Group, said that among the medicinal plants and herbs, star gooseberry tree is a common plant grown in many provinces and cities across Viet Nam but it is rarely exploited and commercialised in the market.

After a period of time in conducting research, the team found that the bark and leaves of the plant have a high antioxidant capacity and are antibodies of lung and cervical cancer cells. Therefore, the team decided to develop two products: instant tea made from the bark of star gooseberry trees and chocolate from the leaves.

The purpose of the project is to support the prevention of a number of dangerous diseases, thereby contributing to increasing the livelihoods of farmers, maintaining a source of valuable active plants, and promoting the genetic advantages of native plants.

The ACIDUS Team hopes to become one of the leading brands in the field of health food, bringing medicinal plants and herbs from star gooseberry trees to the world.

Currently, the team is adjusting the formula to create a quality product. It wishes to receive active support from investors so that the product can be launched in the market in the near future, Tam said.

According to Nguyen Thi An Thu, a member of ACIUDS, the team’s products won a number of important awards, such as the second prize at the ‘Light up your creativity’ contest in 2022, the first prize of the ‘BIOSARTUP 2023’ contest, and the first prize of the ‘Start-up incubation’ contest.

Similarly, the GPs Team-developed project of producing microbial bags from arrowroot starch has won the second prize of the ‘Start-up incubation’ contest organised by the Innovation, Creation and Start-up Programme entitled "Developing 21^st Century Skills" and has been the most favourite product in the “BIOSARTUP 2023” contest organised by the Biotechnology Alliance.

Hoang Thi Ni Na, leader of GPs Team, said that this type of microbial bags can be used to store salt and sauce in instant noodles. Also, it has the outstanding advantage of being edible, and soluble in hot water, helping increase convenience when eating instant noodles and reducing the amount of plastic waste released into the environment.

The group chose cassava flour because it is a cheap, safe, easy-to-find product. However, during the research process, the group encountered many difficulties because the topic was new and there was not much reference information.

Currently the product is in the process of research to find the best production plan. In addition, the group plans to make food packaging bags from cassava flour to replace plastic bags.

Dr. Nguyen Thi Anh Thu, a member of the jury of the "BIOSARTUP 2023" contest, affirmed that the aforementioned products are completely new ideas and have the potential to develop into the market. However, she stressed the need for both teams to improve the product quality and register for patents and intellectual property rights for their projects.

Reporting by HUYNH TUONG VY - Translating by M.DUNG