Fermentation Process of Leucaena Seed with Rhizopus oryzae

Abstract

Fermentation process of leucaena seeds with Rhizopus oryzae was developed to study biochemical during fermentation process with the emphasis on iron evailability in vitro. Fermentation significantly increased the solubilities of protein and carbohydrate soluble sugars. The increase of tannins content of the seeds during fermentation was due to loss of binding capacity between tannins and protein or carbohydrate. The loss was due to the increase in the pH value and the decrease in size of the digested protein and carbohydrate by the activity of enzymes produced by microorganism. Although the detectable tannins in the leucaena tempe was higher than that in unfermented seeds, there was no binding effect of tannins with iron. Iron availability of the leucnenn tempe increased from 1.9% in the cotyledons to 11.6%. This finding showed the benefit effect of fermentation on the iron availability ofthe tempe.