General Information

Academic career and professional attainments

Employment records

Significant Achievements

1. Research, teaching and extension achievements

   Over 30 years research experience on tropical tuber crops mainly om starch chemistry and technology, biochemical principles of thse tubers, quality analysis of tubers for the other divisions etc. Guided students for M.Sc and Ph.D, three have submitted and received their doctorate degrees.

2. Products including varieties, concepts, processes, technologies, patents (actually granted), books, manual etc.

   A number of products based on tubers and theior starches for food and industrial applications were developed. These include cassava rava, Biscuits from yam flour, various starch derivatives -viz. starch with reduced viscosity , viscosity stabilized starches, oxidized starch, starch esters like starch phosphate, starch acetate, starch succinate, cold water miscible starch for food and industry, Carboxymethyl starch, Crosslinked starch etc. Technologies for production of these products were standardized and the technology for cold water miscible starch was purchased by Vensa Biotech, Samakot, Andhra Pradesh for commercial exploitation.
   Published two technical bulletins, one on cassava starch and another on all tuber starches . Coauthored in two books -one published by CRC Press, USA and another by Oxford-IBH, New Delhi and contributed chapters on two other books and in many institute publications.

Awards and Recognitions

1. Awards and honours

   (National and International awards based on scientific work, Peer Reviewed recognitions such as Fellowship or Office Bearers’ positions in major Academics or Societies, Chairman of Sessions of important International/ National Symposia etc.)

   1. Recipient of the Hari Om Trust Award for 1993-94 for Outstanding contribution in Horticulture for the work on Tropical Tuber Starches
   2. Coreceipient of ICAR Team Research Award for the Biennium 1985-86 for the research work on post-harvest technology of cassava
   3. Coreceipient of ICAR Team Research Award for 1995-96 for work on cassava fermentation
   4. Coreceipient of ICAR Team Research Award for 1997-98 for work on sweet potato processing and utilization
   5. Recognised Guide for Kerala and Kannur Universities.
   6. Principal Investigator in ICAR Cess Fund projects on Minor ‘Tuber Starches and Potentialities of tuber starches in tablets and capsules
   7. Reviewed papers for J.Food Agric.(U.K), J.Agri.Food Chem.(Seven), J.Root Crops., J. Food Science and Technology, Thermochimica Acta etc.
   8. Reviewed a project for ESCAP, Brazil.
   9. Acted as Organising secretary for Carbohydrate conference CARBO XVI held during 2001 at CTCRI, Trivandrum.
   10. ACCTI Lifetime Achivement Award Recipient 2009

2. Membership / Positions in Professional Societies

   1. Life member Indian Society for Root Crops
   2. Life member in Association of Carbohydrate Chemists and Technologists (India) (held positions as executive member three times)
   3. Life member of Association of British Council Scholars (India)

Foreign visits, Trainings, Conferences

• Sabbatical

  Worked as guest researcher at the Food Technology Division of Lund University, Sweden during from 1998 to March 1999, attached to Professor A. C.Eliasson. Visited Swedish Agricultural University, Uppsala and Royal Danish Agricultural University, Copenhagen and Danish Technical University, Copenhagen, Denmark.

• Training

  Underwent training in Starch Chemistry at the University of Nottingham attached to Professor. J.M.V.Blanshard, and NRI, Chatham, UK for 6 months during October 1990 to May 1991.

• Conferences

  1. Attended International course on Processing and Utilization of Tuber Crops at CIAT, Cali, Colombia during May 1986.
  2. Attended First international scientific meeting of the Cassava Biotechnology Network (CBN) held at Cartagena, Colombia during August 25-28, 1992.
  3. Attended International meeting Cassava starch and flour held at CIAT, Cali, Colombia during 11-14 January, 1994.
  4. Attended XI the Symposium of International society for Tropical Root Crops held at University of West Indies, Trinidad and Tobago during 19-24 October 1997.
  5. Attended a seminar on “Biofortified Sweet Potato for Alleviation of Vitamin A Deficiency and Food Security in Bangladesh” and delivered a talk on “Orange flesh sweet potato, storage, marketing and other post harvest issues’ during 16-19 June 2008, Dhaka, Bangladesh
  6. Attended and presented papers at ‘Global cassava partnership: First scientific meeting GCP-1. Cassava-meeting the challenges of the new millennium’ during 20-25 July, 2008 at Ghent, Belgium.

Important Publications in Journals

1. Moorthy S.N. 1985. Effect of different types of surfactants on cassava starch properties. J. Agric. Food Chem. 35, 1227-1232.
2. Moorthy S.N. 1991. Extraction of starches from tuber crops using ammonia. Carbohydrate Polymers. 16,391-398.
3. Moorthy, S.N. , Thankamma Pillai, P.K. and Unnikrishnan, M. 1993. Variability in starch extracted from taro, Carbohydrate polymers, 20, 169-173.
4. Moorthy, S.N. , Mathew George and Padmaja, G. 1993. Functional properties of starch flour extracted from cassava on fermentation with a mixed culture inoculum , J. Sci. Food Agric. 61, 443-447.
5. Mat Hashim, Moorthy, S.N., Mitchell, J.R., Hill, S.E, Linfoot, K.J. and Blandshard, J.M.V. 1992. Effect of low levels of antioxidants on the swelling and solubility of cassava starch, Starch/Staerke, 44, 471-475.
6. Moorthy, S.N., Unnikrishnan, M. and Lakshmi, K.R. 1994. Physico-chemical properties of some accessions of Amorphophallus paeonifolius, Trop. Sci., 34, 371-376.
7. Moorthy, S.N., Wenham, J.E and Blanshard, J.M.V. 1996. Effect of solvent extraction on the gelatinization properties of flour and starch of five cassava varieties, J. Sci.Food Agric., 72, 329-36.
8. Moorthy, S.N. and Mathew George, 1998, Fermentation of cassava and the associated changes in physicochemical and functional properties, Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition, 38, 73-121
9. John, J.K., Sunitha Rani, Raja, K.C.M. and Moorthy, S.N., 1999, Physicochemical and enzyme susceptibility characteristics of starch extracted from chemically pretreated Xanthosoma saggittifolium roots Starch/Staerke, 51, 86-89.
10. Moorthy, S.N, Anderson, L, Eliasson,A.C, Santacruz, S and Ruales, J., 2006, Determination of amylose content in starches using Modulated DSC, , Starch/Staerke, 58, 209-214.

Books / Book Chapters / Bulletins / Patents / Laboratory Manuals etc

1. Books

   1. CASSAVA IN FOOD, FEED AND INDUSTRY, C.Balagopalan, G.Padmaja, S.K.Nanda and S.N.Moorthy. CRC Press, USA, 1988
   2. ROOT CROPS – S.P. Ghosh, J.S. Jos, T.Ramanujam, S.N. Moorthy and S.G. Nair, Oxford-IBH, New Delhi 1988

2. Chapters in Books

   1. Tuber Crops Starch Properties, In: ADVANCES IN HORITICLUTURE, Vol.8 ,Ed. K.L.Chadha and G.G.Nair, Malhotra Publications, New Delhi, 1994
   2. Tropical Sources of Starch, In: STARCH IN FOOD, Ed Eliasson, A.C, Woodhead Publishers, London, 2004

3. Technical Bulletins

   1. Cassava starch and its modifications, S.N.Moorthy Tech.Bull. NO.4 CTCRI, 1985
   2. Tuber Crops starches, S.N. Moorthy, Tech. Bull.No.18, CTCRI, 1994., Rev. 2000

4. Patents

   1. A process for cold water miscible cassava starch was developed and one industry in Andhra Pradesh has purchased the technology