Aroid starches

From: "Barton, Dr H.J." hjb15 at leicester.ac.uk> on 2002.05.29 at 15:49:09(8925) Dear Aroid lovers, I am an archaeologist working in the UK at the University of Leicester. I am researching the use of aroids and other tuberous species in Sarawak, Malaysia. The deposits I am looking at range from 50,000 years old through to the last 2,000 years and many of them contain preserved starch grains. I have been building a reference collection of material here at the University but am still lacking some important aroids and other species. Can anyone help me? I have provided a list of some of the plants of interest. All I require is a small section of the tuber or rhizome. e.g. a piece of tissue about 3cm by 2cm is all that I need to extract starches and keep in alcohol as reference material. >From the reference material I can compare the starches with those fround in the archaeological deposits and, potentially, identify the family or even species of plant used in prehistory. Cheers, Huw ARACEAE Schismatoglottis calyptrata Cyrtosperma merkusii TACCACEAE Tacca leontopetaloides ZINGIBERACEAE Curcuma xanthorrhiza Curcuma zeodara CYPERACEAE Cyperus esculentus Cyperus rotundus Eleocharis dulcis EUPHORBIACEAE Manihot esculenta MARANTACEAE Maranta arundinacea Dr Huw J Barton Postdoctoral Research Fellow School of Archaeology and Ancient History University of Leicester +More University Road Leicester LE1 7RH hjb15@le.ac.uk (w) +44 (0)116 252 2793

Note: this is a very old post, so no reply function is available.