Slides that were presented to delegates from Sultan Qaboos University on an official visit to UCSI University. Research by some of my most talented students are featured within.

1. Research Activities
2015
Assist. Prof. Eric Chan Wei Chiang

2. Main research areas
1. Effects of heat treatment on
bioactivity of food
2. Isolation of bioactive natural
products
3. Production of carboxymethyl
hydrogels

3. Effects of heat treatment
 Thermal treatments used in food preparation and
processing is widely considered to degrade
biomolecules and reduce any bioactive properties
 However, our recent showed thermal and non-
thermal drying treatments enhanced the
bioactivity of certain herbs
 The herbs studied were Etlingera elatior (Torch
ginger), Morus alba (Mulberry) and Thunbergia
laurifolia (Blue trumpet vine).

4. Antioxidant assays and drying
treatments
Assessment of Antioxidant
Properties
 Total phenolic content (TPC)
 DPPH Radical Scavenging
(AEAC)
 Ferric reducing power (FRP)
Drying treatments
 Microwave drying
 Oven drying
 Sun-drying
 Air drying
 Freeze drying

5. Microwave-drying enhanced the
AOP of T. laurifolia leaves with
34% increase in total phenolic
content and 67% increase in
radical scavenging ability
Leaves of M. alba responded
positively to Microwave-drying,
Oven-drying and Freeze-drying.
Freeze-drying enhanced the
AOP of leaves of E. elatior
Effects of heat treatment

6. Overlay of chromatograms
showed greater amounts of
minor compounds in freeze-
dried than fresh leaves.
The HPLC chromatogram of freeze-dried leaves of E. elatior showed
greater amounts of minor compounds than fresh leaves

7. Undergraduate students
Suit Ying Phui Yan Michelle

8. Quorum quenching by methyl
gallate isolated from cashew leaves
 Methanolic extract of cashew leaves was assessed for
quorum sensing (QS) inhibition using the disc-diffusion
assay with Chromobacterium violaceum
 The extract exhibited strong anti-QS activity
 From the extract, methyl gallate was isolated by
column chromatography and identified by NMR and MS
spectroscopy, and quantified using reversed-phase
HPLC.

9. HPLC quantfication
 Content of methyl gallate was found to be
1830 ± 180 μg/g of leaves

10. Postgraduate alumni
 Yuen Ping produced 9 publications upon
completion of her MSc.

11. Further research with UM-HIR
 Thiba a PhD candidate under Dr Chan Kok Gan would be
testing herbs for quorum quenching on different
E. coli strains which produce long-chain and short-chain
AHL signalling molecules.

12. FRGS:Root Targeted Delivery Vehicle
for fertilizers using cellulose from
agricultural waste
 Malaysian agriculture is very productive
and generates large amounts of wastes
annually
 Plant biomass from agricultural waste is a
rich underutilised source of cellulose
that can be used to manufacture
carboxymethyl cellulose
 Waste from Malaysian agriculture can be
fully utilised to create a root targeted,
slow-release fertilizer system

13. Root targeted delivery
systems
Hydrogel beads Commercial RTDV Estate wastewater

14. Current MSc students
Pei Xin and Caroline

15. Thank you