The chemical modifications of starch granules have been adopted to improve the characteristics, viz., paste clarity, resistant starch content, thermal stability, and so forth. The modified starch has been applied as a biopolymer in developing various preparations of food, nutraceutical, and pharmaceutical importance. The present work is focused on phosphorylation of alkali extracted mandua starch for improving digestion resistibility. The phosphorylation of mandua starch extracted from grains of Eleusine coracana (family Poaceae) was carried out by sodium tripolyphosphate/sodium trimetaphosphate at alkaline pH. After chemical treatment of mandua starch, the resistant starch (RS) content was increased significantly. The digestibility of chemically modified starch (CMS) was decreased down after treating by the phosphorylation process. The digestibility of CMS and alkali extracted mandua starch (AMS) in simulated intestinal fluid was found to be 32.64 ± 1.98% w/w and 61.12 ± 2.54% w/w, respectively. After chemical modification of mandua starch, a decrement was observed in amylose content, water-binding capacity, and swelling power. In the three-stage decomposition pattern of CMS studied by thermal gravimetric analysis, the significant changes in decomposition behavior also affirmed the impact of cross-linking in the improvement of stability of internal structure and resistibility of starch. In Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), the formation of the PO bond was observed in CMS at 1250 cm–1. The acute and sub-acute toxicity studies in terms of behavioral, haematological, and enzymological parameters for CMS were not different significantly from AMS and control (p > 0.05). The cellular architecture of the liver and the kidney were found normal after consumption of CMS. The results revealed that significant increment in RS fraction occurred after cross-linking of mandua starch. The prepared starch may be applied in developing various formulations of food and pharmaceutical importance.

Methyl ester production from jatropha–algae oil is conducted through a transesterification process. Consequences of four parameters, the molar ratio (oil:methanol), the reaction temperature, the amount of catalyst, and the reaction time for obtaining a higher yield of biodiesel, are derived, and the process was optimized using the response surface methodology based on the Box–Behnken Design. An optimized biodiesel yield of 96% is achieved at a molar ratio of 1:10, a reaction temperature of 53° C, a 0.3 wt% catalyst, and a reaction time of 172 min. The predicted optimal conditions were experimentally validated with a relative error of 4% of the experimental result (96%). The P value of ANOVA is <0.0001, which shows that the model is significant. Finally, the performance and emissions in a diesel engine coupled with an electricity generator powered by biodiesel blends (B0, B5, B10, and B20% vol.) were investigated, concluding a significant reduction of exhaust gases. The engine was run with numerous blends of biodiesel by changing the brake power from 0 load to 0.5, 1, 1.5, and 2 KW.

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