Polyphenol Content and Enhancing Plant resistance of Lowland Arabica Coffee

Abstract

The production of arabica coffee in Indonesia is still low because of leaf rust disease suppression caused by Hemileia vastatrix. Basically, it can produce well in the overlapping zone (1000-1500 masl). This potential can be used as basic for intensifying arabica coffee cultivation to the lowland. For anticipation steps to reduce the spread of leaf rust can be done by increasing the production of polyphenol as plant resistance. The addition of mineral element such as silica, boron, iodine, calcium, and potassium can stimulate the synthesis of plant polyphenol. In this research, five minerals above were tested into 7 treatment with single factor RCBD, that is without additional of the mineral element, 150 mg L-1 Si, 300 mg L-1 B, 3000 mg L-1 Ca, 20.000 mg L-1 K, 300 mg L-1 I, and the combination/mix of five mineral elements. The laboratory analysis shows that calcium able to produce the highest polyphenol, but it is not a real difference with silica. The polyphenol that synthesized by Si, I, and K was able to reduce the leaf rust incidence until 78,13%, while Ca can reduce the incidence up to 71,88%.