Nutritional improvement of copra meal using mannanase and Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

Copra meal is a by-product of coconut milk extraction, contained 4.60 ± 0.01 g/100 g DM and 62.19 ± 0.53% of protein and fiber, respectively. The optimal condition for quality improvement of copra meal was investigated using Box-Behnken design combined with response surface methodology (RSM). The simultaneous saccharification and fermentation (SSF) of Copra meal was performed by mannanase enzyme and yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The concentration of mannanase was determined as the most important factor to increase protein content in copra meal. The protein content was increased by 64% when 0.7% of enzyme per copra meal dry weight, the ratio of copra meal to water at 1:4.56 and fermentation time of 90.25 h at 30 °C were used. The program predicted an increase of 3.06 g of protein/100 g dry matter; however, the experimental result showed an increase of 3.35 g/100 g DM of protein in copra meal. The 10 kg of copra meal SSF in Koji reactor, the protein content increased to 4.18 g/100 g DM, while fiber content decreased 49%. Moreover, amino acids were increased by 64.05% and oligosaccharides, especially mannohexaose, were increased to 0.708 g/g DM. Results showed that fermentation of copra meal with mannanase and yeast offers a potential method to improve the nutrition of copra meal as animal feed. © King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology 2020.