Research: A CSUN instructor is studying a substance made from an Oriental root. Results look promising.

Cal State Northridge is not widely thought of as a food research center. Its food science department is small, and until recently its research laboratory resembled the kitchen in “Leave It to Beaver” more than a place of scientific study.

But out of this basement lab has come a discovery that could put CSUN on the food research map in a big way. A graduate student working there found that an Asian root plant can be ground up, made into a powder, liquefied and then used as one of the most widely pursued substances of the 1990s--a fat substitute.

Amorphophallus konjac, which resembles an oversized and misshapen potato, is the formal name of a root that belongs to the taro family. Those working in the field call it konjac.

“Konjac changed my life,” said Terri Lisagor, 41, with a laugh as she held aloft a small plastic bag of konjac powder, which resembles white sand. In 1987, while working toward her master’s degree in home economics, she began experimenting with a konjac formulation that its Japanese manufacturer was planning to market as a fiber additive. But in the course of her studies, she realized it could also be a non-caloric substitute for fat.

Since then, Lisagor has made hundreds of cookies, cheesecakes, muffins and other baked goods with konjac as a total or partial substitute for oil and butter. Her findings are promising enough that a company has been formed in Japan to promote and distribute konjac as a fat substitute. Last week, the venture--called Earth House--leased office space in Warner Center and negotiations have begun with Nebraska officials to establish a 50-acre experimental konjac farm.

Earth House is seeking Food and Drug Administration approval, which it hopes to have within a year, for its most recent konjac formulation, Lisagor said. In the meantime, Lisagor, who now teaches food science at the university, continues to oversee konjac research CSUN.

Even if FDA approval is obtained and her early findings stand up to vigorous taste and other sensory tests, the fat substitute is not a guaranteed hit. It remains to be seen if products made with konjac, which is not currently grown in this country, can be made at a reasonable cost. And it faces a good deal of competition.

One substitute, Simplesse, is already on the market and several others that show promise are being tested in food laboratories around the world.

At least one expert in the field has doubts about konjac’s promise. “I don’t think of it as much more than bran that sucks up water,” said Manfred Kroeger, who does food research at Penn State University and is cited by the Institute of Food Technologists as an expert in fat substitutes. “It is very much like Metamucil, which you can buy at the store, and I guess you could make cookies out of that, too. But I think they might be expensive and I don’t know that they would taste all that good.”

If konjac proves its critics wrong and becomes a food industry craze, the financial rewards are potentially staggering. Lisagor and CSUN, however, might not share in those rewards.

Earth House has given the university a grant of $25,000 to be used for continuing research into konjac, but there is nothing in that agreement that stipulates that the school or researchers will share in the proceeds that might result from discoveries made on campus, according to university officials.

“We do research as an intellectual pursuit, as part of our instructional program,” said Tung-Shan Chen, director of CSUN’s Magaram Center for Food Science. He arranged for the research grant to come to CSUN.

“Our findings appear in journals and are given at conferences, so there are no secrets.”

But there are ways for the university to protect itself and its researcher, according to Mack Johnson, the associate vice president for graduate studies, research and international programs at CSUN. “The bottom line is that there is no equity position for the department or the university in this matter,” Johnson said. “And from a personal standpoint, that is a bit disappointing.

“If they had talked to a person like myself before the arrangement was made, I would have at least informed them of the opportunities associated with this kind of situation.”

Lisagor, who feels that the experience she has gained in making the discovery is of great value in her life, said she bears no grudge toward her department.

“Maybe it was shortsightedness on my part not to try and protect myself a bit in case I want to work with a company directly on konjac products or at least earn something from my recipes,” said Lisagor, who has kept detailed records on recipes that she and her students devised. “If the product does go forward and our recipes are used, I guess then we might look into the legal aspects of it.”

Konjac was brought to CSUN by Tokuroh Arimitsu, chair of the Art 3-D Media department at the university. His friend, Sakurai, had sponsored the development of konjac derivatives and wanted to know if the university would be interested in doing some research on the new formulas.

Arimitsu gave a sample of konjac powder to Chen, who passed it on to his student Lisagor to see if she was interested. “I was planning on working on something else for my thesis project,” Lisagor said, “but I thought I’d just get some literature on konjac and look into it.”

The literature available in this country was limited, although a flour made from konjac had been used for more than 1,500 years in Asia to make fiber-rich noodles. Lisagor’s interest was piqued when she read that konjac has water-retentive properties. “In my limited experience in food science at that time,” she said, “I knew at least that that was one of the reasons fat is important in our foods is that it makes them moist.”

Lisagor took up the challenge of working with konjac, and Sakurai agreed to send a supply of the root for her studies.

Her first project was to use the liquefied konjac in oatmeal cookies. “We tried it at 100% substitution for the fat and then at different percentages,” she said. “Then we ran sensory evaluation taste tests. We wanted to see how much konjac we could put in and have it still taste and feel like an oatmeal cookie.”

Lisagor found that a 50% substitution seemed best. At that formulation, the fat content in the cookie dropped by more than one-third. In addition, the calorie count was reduced from about 77 to 63 per cookie, and the dietary fiber increased about 17%.

Another early experiment was with chocolate pecan muffins. With a total substitution of konjac for fat, the fat content dropped 76% and calories decreased 26%.

“We started to get really excited,” Lisagor said.

The konjac formulation does not resemble fats and oils in all aspects. It cannot be melted for frying because it coagulates when heated. It cannot be used in frozen foods as can Simplesse, a protein-based product. And it does not blend well with all foods. “I had great hopes it could be used to cut down the fat in peanut butter, which is just loaded with fat,” Lisagor said, “but I have not been able to get it to work.

“I knew there would be disappointments. So far, no one has ever been able to develop a fat substitute that absolutely replaces all aspects of fats,” Lisagor said.

Taste was another compromise. The latest version of the chocolate pecan muffins is moist and chocolaty, but they don’t quite have the same chewiness as ones made with fat. The oatmeal cookies have a nice snap to them, but are a bit on the dry side.

“We are not pretending that we duplicate foods exactly,” Lisagor said. “We are striving to make them quite acceptable as an alternative for people who want to eat these foods but still cut down on fat intake.”

Lisagor has already reaped some benefits from her discovery. Sakurai brought her to Japan for meetings with his staff. Papers about her work have been presented at several food science conferences and she has spoken at several gatherings about her research. On those occasions, he has been approached by major food companies about the possibility of coming to work for them.

So far, Lisagor has chosen to remain at CSUN.

“I was born to teach, and that is what I most enjoy,” she said. “And I love to tell my students the story of what happened to me. They need to know that the potential for making discoveries in a college classroom is very real.”