We have succeeded in producing pawpaw tea and wine – Prof Egwari

By Ebele Orakpo The vision of the National Office for Technology Acquisition and Promotion (NOTAP) to launch seven standard products that the world will know Nigeria for, is coming to fruition through the efforts of Nigerian researchers like Prof. Louis Egwari, the Head of Department of Biological Sciences, Covenant University (CU) and Deputy Dean, School of Natural and Applied Sciences. In this chat with Vanguard in his office, the professor of medical microbiology with emphasis on anaerobic bacteriology, public analyst of food, pharmaceuticals and related products, says apart from giving the world beverages from pawpaw, the fruit can become a revenue earner and job creator for Nigeria. Excerpts: Motivation: “Because of Nigeria’s need for food security and sustainability, I developed special interest in anaerobic bacteriology and I have gone into product development using microorganisms, basically

through fermentation. Some of my reference works geared in this direction of product development have resulted in three patents given to us by the Federal Republic of Nigeria, facilitated by NOTAP,” said Egwari. According to him, the three patents awarded in May 2010 were: Patent to produce beverage drinks from pawpaw; patent to produce different types of fermented products from rice; and patent to produce culture media from the exoskeleton of crustaceans continued