Evaluation of kepok banana corm fermented with Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Aspergillus niger as feeds

Abstract

This study evaluated the nutritional and tannin contents of cooked Kepok banana corm, fermented with Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Aspergillus niger. Corm meal was pretreated by steam for 1 hour at 102 0C before fermenting. The pretreated corms were inoculated with 10% (w/v) inoculum dose with additional nutrient mono-culture or co-culture. A completely randomized design with a 3 x 3 factorial arrangement was used to investigate two main factors: microbial strains and incubation time, with three subfactors each, resulting in nine treatment combinations and three replications. The microbial strain and incubation time significantly (P>0.01) affected the nutrient content of fermented Kepok banana corms. The highest dry matter content (91.84%) was achieved by incubation with S. cerevisiae for 48 h, while 89.61% organic matter was obtained by fermentation with both S. cerevisiae + A. niger for 48 h. The highest crude protein content was 5.81%, which resulted from treatment with S. cerevisiae for 96 h, increasing the crude protein by 61% compared to the control (3.58% crude protein). Fermentation by the microbe consortium (S. cerevisiae + A. niger) for 72 h, produced maximum starch (35.54 g/100 g) and energy (3511 Kcal/kg) values. Thus, the fermented products are a potential source of energy, to be used as feed ingredients.