Lumen Waite 100 - Flipbook - Page 59
Top Shelf Agave
The long game of Waite researchers looking into the potential
applications of agave is for the plant to be used in the production
of a carbon-neutral fuel. But as is often the case with agave,
we’ve made a pit stop on that journey via the backbar. The Uni
has worked with Victorian spirits brand Top Shelf International
to produce an Australian agave spirit (like tequila, but, legally
speaking, not tequila), which is made using Blue Weber Agave
grown in Bowen in Queensland. Professor Rachel Burton has
been analysing the molecular and agronomic properties of agave
since 2010 in collaboration firstly with AusAgave and more
recently with Vircura.
Dr Schär
Gluten-free products can be good, thanks to psyllium husks.
These create a sticky gel that makes up for the lack of a gluten
network, which in traditional dough traps gases from yeast
which cause the dough to rise. European baked-goods brand
Dr Schär uses psyllium husks to produce coeliac-friendly
breads that are fluffy and pleasantly chewy, rather than soaplike in texture as you might expect. The Australian Bureau of
Statistics found 2.5 per cent of Australians avoid gluten due to
an intolerance, which means the happiness of almost 650,000 of
our countryfolk depends upon psyllium, or Plantago ovata. The
University of Adelaide is working with Dr Schär to understand
the plant better. We were the first to sequence its genome, and
we’ve investigated its suitability as an Australian crop, helping to
define important quality measures the company uses to quality
test batches of seeds and husks.
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