Production
of Nata from Some Tropical Fruits and Coconut Water
Turhadi,
Mafruhatun N, Niken Candra B, Tria Irma M, dan Tri Ardyati
Biology
Department, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Brawijaya University,
Indonesia
Abstract
Fermented food becomes
popular in recent years. One of the fermented food product is nata, a polymer
used as source of cellulose which produced by Acetobacter xylinum. The objectives of this research was to produce
nata from coconut water and some tropical fruits: pineapples, watermelon and Aloevera. Each raw materials was
extracted using blender/juicer the filtered through a filter cloth. One liter
of fruit juice from each raw materials were boiled at 100 ˚C for 15 minutes.
After the solution reached at room temperature, 75 g of sugar and 75 ml of
acetic acid were added, stirred and poured into a container the incubated ata
room temperature for 3 weeks. Parameters observed were the thickness of nata or
cellulose formation and pH. The highest formation of nata was affected by sugar
content and pH of rawa materials. It was shown that the thickness of nata from
watermelon was higher than others, reached 0.65 cm.
Keywords: Aloevera,
nata, pineapple, watermelon
