Indian Journal of Science and Technology

Abstract

Objectives: Traditional fermentation uses culture starters to convert farm by-products into nutritive substances. This study investigated the potential of rice culture starter (RCS) in pre-fermenting parboiled rice bran (PRB) into a nutritive mash.

 Methods/statistical analysis: This study used the completely randomized design in triplicate. Three mixtures ratio of RCS and PRB served as experimental treatments, while PRB without RCS was used as the control treatment. The treatments have undergone the traditional solid-state fermentation at 72 h, 120 h, and 192 h. The treatment means were compared using the f-test, and significant means were compared to the least significant difference (LSD) using the SPSS version 16.

Findings: The experimental treatments show a significantly higher fermented PRB mash volume and lower pH compared to the control treatment, indicating significant fermentation of PRB substrates by RCS. The mixture ratio of 12:100 parts of RCS and PRB respectively shows a significantly higher PRB mash volume after 72 hours compared to the other mixture ratios. Chemical analysis of fermented PRB shows 4.90% ash content similar to the contents of stabilized and probiotic rice bran, and other nutritive substances. This study shows the potential of pre-fermenting agricultural biomass substrates through traditional solid-state fermentation into nutritive elements. Furthermore, this study demonstrates the practical use of traditional starter cultures, including RCS that can benefit farmers directly.

Application: This study showed that the rice culture starter could be used in biomass conversions, which can be adopted by ordinary people using traditional fermentation technology.

Keywords: Rice Culture Starter, Parboiled Rice Bran, SolidFermentation, Pre-Fermentation.