Preparation of Inulin from Chicory Roots

Inulin has immense applications in health and nutrition as well as in food industries. Inulin is isolated from chicory roots by differential precipitation with ethanol (0-20, 20-40 and 40-60 per cent) from the aqueous extract of sun-dried roots, by melting the frozen chicory root extract and by removing the oligo-fructosachharides from chicory roots with 20 per cent ethanol. Different inulin preparations so obtained are compared with some of the commercial inulin preparations. Sun-dried roots are as good as the fresh roots for isolation of inulin hut roots dried in an oven (80-90"C) have lower inulin content due to hydrolysis of tructans during drying. For better inulin yield. chicory roots should be extracted with water having pll adjusted to 7. pH of water on acidic side results in lower inulin recovery.