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.
Direct fermentation of potato starch to ethanol by cocultures of Aspergillus niger and Saccharomyces cerevisiae.
