Effect of different ragi on sugar production and fermentation quality of fermented glutinous rice / Siti Mutheerah Abd Aziz

Fungi diversity analysis of local ragi obtained at different locations was conducted. Then the quality of fermented glutinous rice regarding the glucose content was analysed using High Performance Liquid Chromatography- Evaporator light scattering detector (HPLC-ELSD). This study was conducted since there is no literature on the fungi diversity of local ragi, therefore makes it difficult for large scale production of tapai. The significances of this study are it will help to understand the contribution of the different ragi towards tapai quality so that large scale production of tapai is possible. Therefore some improvement can be made and this traditional food maybe someday can successfully be manufactured in factory. Samples were bought from Kedah, Kelantan, Selangor, Perak and Johor. There are 37 trained panelists were used during the Quantitative Descriptive Analysis (QDA) to look at the sweetness intensity of tapai. It was found that the sweetness difference was significant at 1% level while glucose content was significantly difference at 5% level. This study also shows that different location of ragi source have different fungi diversity. Moulds that can be found from the analysis are Rhizopus oligosporus, Rhizopus oryzae, Aspergillus oryzae and Aspergillus flavus while the yeasts are Candida utilis and Saccharomyces cerevisiae. This study also revealed that presence of Rhizopus oligosporus, Rhizopus oryzae, Candida utilis, and Saccharomyces cerevisiae in ragi give the highest glucose production, 55.40%, which also recognised as the sweetest sample by the panelist.