Indigenous Bacteria Community Fluctuation During Fermentation of Water Hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes) and Corncob (Zea mays)

Abstract

Water hyacinth nowadays is a disturbing water-weeds. In fact, water hyacinth is potential for cattle feed if it is mixed with corncob, and thus increase the nutritional value. In cattle feed production, there are some indigenous fungi and bacteria to be used for fermentation. This research was aimed to know the fluctuation of bacteria and fungi community for 15 days of fermentation process. The bacteria and fungi were first inoculated and isolated in both NBA and PDA agar plate. Then, they were purified so as to make pure-culture that will be easily identified. Bacteria identification was conducted using Microbact Identification Kits ( MicrobactTM GNB12A and 12B) and identification book Bergey’s Manual of Determinative Bacteriology. Fungi identification were conducted based on macroscopic and microscopic characteristics. Ecological parameters such as diversity, evenness, and dominancy were analyzed on this research. There were eight bacteria species found, including Bacillus laterosporus, B. badius, B. pantothenticus, B. brevis, Staphylococcus sciuri, B. stearothermophilus, Burkholderia pseudomallei, and Enterococcus duran. The highest bacteria diversity were in the fourth day, the highest evenness occured at the first, tenth, twelveth, and fiftenth day. All of the bacteria species were dominant during fermentation, except Bacillus badius at the eleventh day that was a subdominant bacteria.