Abstract:
Tuber and root crops have developed into important food crops especially in tropical and subtropical countries. Taro (Colocasia esculenta) is ranked as the fifth-most important root crop due to its use in food preparation, ornamentation, and medicine. In comparison, it stores a considerable quantity of starch even more than potatoes, sweet potatoes, cassava, and other similar crops. There for the aim oft his study was to extract and analyses the proximate composition and physical properties of taro root available in Bangladesh. Taro starch contained 4.06% and 5% moisture and ash respectively. The physical properties of taro starch was as true density is of 1.66 gm/ml, water holding capacity is 2 ml, yield percentage is 1.227%, porosity 69.9% and the bulk density is 0.5 g/cm 3. The yield percentage of taro starch was 1.23%. The yield percentage was too low this is because of higher moisture content of taro and wastage during processing. Further study is required to increase the yield percentage of starch.
