The Effect of Fermentation on the Nutritional Content of Amorphophallus sp. as Poultry Feed

Abstract

Amorphophallus is one of the underutilized aroid of Araceae family, which is not a cultivated plant, but high in productivity. The tuber contains a large amount of starch, but has antinutritional factors like oxalic acid leading on problems in palatability. This experiment was conducted to evaluate the effect of fermentation by Bacillus subtilis on nutritive values and oxalate content of Amorphophallus tuber. The Amorphophallus tubers were cleaned, sliced, dried, milled and then fermented with different level of Bacillus subtilis. This experiment used Completely Randomized Design with four treatments and three replicates. The treatments were 0, 10, 20, and 30% level of Bacillus subtilis inoculum. The parameters observed were dry matter, crude protein, crude fiber and oxalate content of Amorphophallus tuber. Results showed that dry matter, crude protein, crude fiber were not affected by the treatments but oxalate content of Amorphophallus were decreased along with increasing level of Bacillus subtilis. The lowest oxalate content of Amorphophallus was found on treatment with 20% of Bacillus subtilis.