Hello everyone!
This is Yusuke Taga, 2nd grade of International Joint Ph.D. Program in Food Science & Technology, maybe some of you knows as joint Degree Program.
In Japan, I major Natural product chemistry, which finding compounds that can be used as medicine from plants.
Now I stay in Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati (IITG), India.
And in this side I major Plant tissue culture.
...Now, Prof. Miyake give us some guidelines, so I would like to write about them below.
1. Your name (and nickname), place of origin, and anything that characterizes you.
I'm Yusuke Taga, and from Aichi Prefecture, which is located next to Gifu Prefecture.
As mentioned above, I am currently in India. Next March I will come back to Gifu.
2. Your academic field, your doctoral study theme, and the most interesting aspect of your work at the moment (please describe it in simple terms).
My research interests include plant pigments on both sides.
The heartwood of this tree shows purple color after harvested and exposured to air or sun light.
Wood materials from this heartwood are used to luxury furniture in all over the world, but this color change mechanism and structure of purple pigments are still unclarified...
So, in Japan, I tried to clarify the color change mechanism of tree that shows a characteristic purple color.
At IITG, I'm trying to clarify the color change mechanism of a flower, which are called Lantana camara, using plant cell culture technology.
This tinny flower also shows color change from yelow to purple but pigments involved this change are also unclarified.
3. Any food that you had recently and were impressed.
As you can easily imagine, life in India is completely different from life in Japan.
There are especially big differences in food culture.
If I had to choose the most impressed food I had in India recently, it would be...
Raj Kachori
It made of crispy fried shells filled with lots of yogurt, potatoes, spices and something.
What surprised me was that Indan people take yogurt as a meal.
Of course Japanese also eats yogurts, but it is eaten after meals or as a sweets.
it is often mixed with fruit and sugar, and eaten as a dessert.
On the other hand, raj kachori is eaten with spices, and I feel that it is more of a meal.
I was impressed by the fact that even the same food material, this time "yogurt", have different roles depending on the country and culture.
Hi Yusuke, good work of starting in the vanguard of self-introduction. Your purple tree reminds me of changing color of yakisoba cooked with purple cabbages https://www.honda.co.jp/kids/jiyuu-kenkyu/upper/24/. This case may be related to the color change due to pH. How about your case of the tree or the Lantana flowers?
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comment, and I would like to anser your question.
DeleteAbout purple cabbage, pigments on it are well known as some kind of anthocyanin. this group of pigments show color change depend on pH, temperature, light stimulation and so on.
A lot of anthocyanin were reported that isolated from flower and leaf part of various plants.
In my study, I think color change of Lantana flower is also due to changing the ratio of anthocyanin, however it's still unknown what kind of anthocyanin lantana contains, so that is what i have to clarify.
And, in the opposite, I think the heartwood of Peltogyne tree shows color change by another mechanism.
Because, usually, the heartwood of trees doesn't contain anthocyanins.
So it will contain a new and novle pigments.
Hello Yusuke, glad to meet you, and thank you for the information about purple pigment, which is a fascinating topic. Oh, and while you're in India, my Indian friend suggested you eat panipuri, she say that its so delicious, one is not enough. :)
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comment!
ReplyDeleteAs you know, it is a ball-shaped dough filled with various fillings.
This was interesting as it resembled Japanese "takoyaki."
(Of course the taste is completely different. . .)