Pre-treatment dan Fermentasi Hidrolisat Kulit Buah Kakao menjadi Asam Laktat menggunakan Lactobacillus Plantarum

Abstract COCOA POD HUSK PRE-TREATMENT AND HYDROLYZATE FERMENTATION INTO LACTIC ACID USING LACTOBACILLUS PLANTARUM. Lactic acid is a raw material that is widely used in food industry as preservatives in meat, vegetables or canned fish. In the pharmaceutical industry is used as raw material for the manufacture of drugs. Lactic acid can be made from natural materials such as lignocellulosic waste one of them is cocoa shell waste. Indonesia is number three cocoa-producing country in the world. 70% cacao fruit components such as pod husk are composed of cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin, so it has the potential to be converted into lactic acid. In this study been the conventional method to determine the overall process in order to know what parts need to be further developed to become a method more effective and efficient. The conventional method is done through several processes, namely the delignification, hydrolysis and fermentation using microorganisms. This study aims to determine the extent of the potential for cocoa pod husk waste to be converted into lactic acid. The results showed that the pod husks delignification with sodium hydroxide solution reaches optimum at a concentration of 6% which results in lower levels of lignin from 30.46 to 24.64%. The process of acid hydrolysis of the pod husks achieve optimum conditions at a concentration of 2.0%, a temperature of 120°C and a 30 minute production of glucose at 32g/L. Glucose is the result of acid hydrolysis produces lactic acid by 13.268g/L. Keywords: lactic acid; delignification; fermentation; hydrolysis; cocoa pod husks Abstrak Asam laktat adalah salah satu bahan baku yang banyak dimanfaatkan pada industri makanan sebagai bahan pengawet daging, sayuran atau ikan kalengan. Dalam industri farmasi digunakan sebagai bahan baku pembutan obat-obatan. Asam laktat dapat dibuat dari bahan alam berupa limbah lignoselulosa yang salah satunya adalah limbah kulit kakao. Indonesia merupakan negara penghasil kakao nomor tiga di dunia. Komponen buah kakao 70% berupa kulit buah yang terdiri dari selulosa, hemiselulosa dan lignin, sehingga berpotensi untuk dikonversi menjadi asam laktat. Pada penelitian ini dipilih metode konvensional untuk mengetahui proses secara keseluruhan sehingga diketahui bagian mana yang perlu dikembangkan lebih lanjut untuk menjadi metode yang lebih efektif dan efisien. Metode konvensional dilakukan melalui beberapa proses, yakni delignifikasi, hidrolisis, dan fermentasi menggunakan mikroorganisme. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui sejauh mana potensi limbah kulit buah kakao