~~~Hooray~~~~

UCSI Food Fair!!!(setting up for the exciting eating competition)

poster~~~ durian +tapai = die???~~~not actually.... lol

On 16th July 2009, it was the day of our poster presentation for Nutrition and Metabolism assignment. That day was the second day of UCSI Food Fair as well. We arrived at about 9.30am and started to pin our poster on the board that provided. When I just finished pinning poster, a student approached the poster and reading the information. I was happy that our poster is actually attracting attention from people who passes through the food fair.

At 11am, Ms Stefanie came to us and we explained the related information of our poster to her. After that, Mr Victor asked us about the faster or effective way to give out the gas trapped in our body. He shared a useful way of exhaling gas from stomach by making ourselves burping frequently. We laughed and sharing opinion. In the afternoon, the vice president of UCSI was stopping at our poster and reading information about our topic. She said the combination of durian and alcohol was shocked her because durian is her favourite fruit. She is a friendly and full of vitality person.

During the food fair, we not only shared information of our assignment with lecturers but anyone who was interested in this topic. The most frequent questions that they asked were the time taken to recover from the discomfort of body after consumed the combination of tapai and durian, is this combination of food really causing dead to people, the major component that caused the dead or bad effect and many more.

All of us were enjoying the food fair, we had a lot of fun and thought it was a good opportunity
for all the students to gain knowledge and experience that we could not learn from lecture or textbook. Too bad Mr Wong was not there to share the meaningful and special moment with us. Everybody is well done in this food fair!!!!!

What happen when we eat TAPAI together with DURIAN???~~

TAPAI???? DURIAN???

First of all, let me briefly introduce tapai and durian.

Tapai or tape is a popular traditional fermented food in South-East Asia. It appears as a semisolid, sweet alcoholic rice paste. Its main ingredient is glutinous rice with sasad as starter culture. It is made by a controlled fermentation of a carbohydrate source with an inoculum containing the microorganisms (Chlamydomucor, Endomycopsis, Hansenula) needed for the production of tapai. (Indrawati Gandjar, 2003)

Glutinous rice (cleaned and washed)
↓
Cook and spread for cooling (open surface ≈30^oC)
↓
Sprinkle tarter culture cakes (powder form) on cooled glutinous rice
↓
Mix and transfer into tajau (earthen jar)
↓
Left open for 1 day before the lid of tajau is sealed
↓
Ferment for 3 weeks
↓
Tapai
Figure 1. flowchart of the processing of Tapai

Durian, Durio zibethinus L., is a type of fruit popular in southeast Asia also known as 'king of fruit' that has large seeds surrounded by fleshy arils. Its shape is from oblong to round, colour of its husk green to brown, and its flesh pale-yellow to red, depending on its species. The edible flesh gives a distinctive odour, strong and penetrating even when the husk is intact. Durian contains a high amount of sugar, vitamin C, potassium, tryptophan and organosulphur compound. It is a good source of carbohydrates, proteins, and fats. It is recommended as a good source of raw fats while others classify it as a high-glycemic food, recommending to minimise its consumption.

Myth or Truth??

Combination of durian and tapai

Durian is said as a kind of 'heaty' food(significantly raise blood pressure). When it combines with tapai that contains alcohol, it will result in a stroke. Recent research revealed that MonoAmine Oxidase Inhibitors (MAOI’s) are responsible for this phenomenon.

Harmaline in durian kernels as well as in the fruit pulp in conjunction with alcohol, induce hypertensive periods, whereby the blood pressure is raised to absurd high levels, and sometimes even reaching life-threatening values of 300. Durian is also a source for tyramine. In the absence of alcohol tyramine is converted in the gastro-intestinal tract swiftly to the corresponding N-oxide, but this conversion is greatly inhibited by harmaline in the presence of alcohol. Thus, the tyramine level in the blood reaches unacceptable high levels, eventually leading to a stroke." (hypertensive crisis causing hemorrhagic stroke leading to sudden death)

Besides strokes, a journal of titled Inhibition of aldehyde dehydrogenase enzyme by Durian (Durio zibethinus Murray) fruit extract from John S. Maninanga, Ma. Concepcion C. Lizadab and Hiroshi Gemma showed that disulfiram (tetraethylthiuram disulfide), a sulphur-containing drug in durian inhibit aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH) in body, causing the accumulation of alcohol-derived acetaldehyde. This leads a person who eat durian together with tapai feel fullness of abdomen and flatulence because the body cannot digest alcohol as the ALDH is inhibited by disulfiram.

From the exepriment, a complete inhibition of yALDH(yeast of ALDH) activity upon treatment with disulfiram by oxidising proximal cysteines in the active site to form a disulfide bridge. With this mechanism, they suggested that sterically suitable compounds containing a disulfide bridge may potentially inhibit ALDH. In durian, diethyl disulfide is the most abundant sulphur compound that contains a disulfide bridge. Diethyl disulfide lowered the activity of yALDH. The inhibition of yALDH activity is hereby supported.

Symptoms of combination of alcohol and tapai

facial flushing, palpitation, drowsiness, vomiting, fullness of abdomen, flatulence and nausea

Arguement of the combination of eating durian and tapai MIGHT KILLED!!
In a medical journal, Durian and Alcohol from C.W Ogle and Y.F Teh reported that consumption of durians with alcohol has not been shown to be harmful. They believed that the abdominal discomfort could be due to the durian itself which is not easily digested. (Durian and Alcohol-http://smj.sma.org.sg/1004/1004smj11.pdf)