Ecology, Environment and Conservation Paper

EVALUATION OF SOME FACTORS AFFECTING YIELD AND QUALITY OF VIRGIN COCONUT OIL (VCO) PRODUCED BY FERMENTATION USING BAKER YEAST

Jasman*, Roswita M. P. Gabur, Nofriany M. Lede, Christine N. Lota, Resti A. Nubatonis, Sudirman and YosepLawa

Abstract

A research has been done on several factors influencing the quality and quantity (yield) of fermented VCO using baker yeast. The factors evaluated were temperature, time (duration), and proportion of yeast in oculum. The quality of VCO studied are moisture content, peroxide number, and acid number while the quantity is yield. The execution of the study involves the steps: making coconut cream, yeast preparation, cream fermentation, oil separation, and data analysis. The experimental design used was a complete randomized design with five levels of treatment for variables of temperature and starter concentration and seven levels of treatment for time variable. Data analysis was performed using one-way ANOVA followed by LSD test at significance level of 0.05. The results showed that temperature variation had significant effect on yield and acid number but not significant effect on moisture content and peroxide number. The optimum temperature to produce the highest yield and the best quality of VCO is 30 oC. The optimum fermentation time is 30 hours, but there is not significant effect of time variable on the yield and quality of VCO obtained. In oculum proportion has significant effect on the yield, acid number, and peroxide number but not on moisture content. Optimum yeast concentration ranges from 2-4%.