Thai scientists in the forefront of research into highly versatile pullulan fungus
Published: 9/02/2009 at 12:00 AM
Newspaper section: Business

You can have your cake and eat it too. It can even be made of plastic, be calorie-free and yet 100% natural and non-toxic. And it might also cure your athlete's foot.

Aureobasidium Pullulans exists in many forms in Thailand, including yellow and pink varieties that haven’t been seen elsewhere.

In fact, you may already have tried it in the form of Cool Mint sheets, or as a coating on foods such as sausages.

When you swallow a capsule of antibiotics, the chances are that you are also swallowing your medicine surrounded by a plastic film - that is, edible plastic produced by a strain of fungus.

"The fungus Aureobasidium Pullulans - or, in short, pullulan - produces the plastic on its own, naturally," explains Asst Prof Dr Hunsa Punnapayak of Chulalongkorn University's faculty of science.

"Pullulan is very good as a diet food additive. It dissolves and passes through the system, but can't be digested by the human body's enzymes," adds lecturer Dr Sehanat Prasongsuk.

Pullulan even has some medicinal properties. Its other features include being biodegradable and entirely non-toxic. It is also flavourless and bars oxygen, meaning that it stores flavours effectively. Because it is water-soluble, it is used in mascaras and creams. As a thermo-plastic, it can be heated and moulded into objects such as children's toys.

"Once it has cooled down, it is no longer water-soluble and becomes durable," says Dr Hunsa.

Making pullulan does not require any agricultural cultivation or fermentation. As a consequence, no more methane, or any more carbon, is created than a living creature naturally releases into the atmosphere. So, essentially, producing pullulan is carbon-neutral.

Because of all these factors, Dr Hunsa and Dr Sehanat set out to discover whether A. Pullulans could be found in Thailand. And not only did they find it, but they found several colours, such as yellow, pink, red, green, brown and black.

"The yellow and pink varieties are the most important findings as these haven't been seen elsewhere," says Dr Hunsa.

The publication of their discovery in 2003 led to a team of scientists from Rutgers University and the United States Department of Agriculture participating in two subsequent studies published in 2005 and 2007.

A couple of companies have already contacted the researchers. A medical company from Michigan wants to use pullulan's anti-fungal properties in developing medication, while a clothing company wants to use the bioplastic to create dust-resistant clothing.

The market has very few competitors. In Thailand, only Hayashibara International Inc is supplying edible films, hard capsules as well as viscosifiers and binders for cosmetics, food products and pharmaceutical products. - Valisa Krairiksh