Wheatgrass Extractor Performance and Its Effect on Fermented Beverage Product Results

Abstract

Wheatgrass is one type of young grass that contains many nutrients that are beneficial to the body due to its vitamin, mineral, protein, and phytochemical properties. However, this plant still not has many scientific data related to the development of its products. As an alternative to the development product of this plant, the fermentation process can be conducted. Before the fermentation, the extraction process was done first in this study. Extraction was carried out to obtain wheatgrass extract which will be used as an ingredient in making fermented drinks. The extraction variations conducted in this study were distinguished based on the extractor system. There were two types of extractors used, the twin-gear type and the squeezing type. The performance of extractor was analyzed by the yield, processing capacity, and extraction rate. The quality of wheatgrass extracts obtained was also analyzed before used as an ingredient to make wheatgrass fermented beverages. In the fermentation, the initial sugar content of the sample was controlled at 24%. The quality of extraction and fermentation product was analyzed by its physicochemical properties, such as TSS, pH, and acidity content. From the results obtained, both of the extractor performance and the quality of product, it can be concluded that to obtain the best quality of wheatgrass fermented beverage was by using twin-gear type extractor as the appropriate extractor with the yield, processing capacity, extraction rate, TSS content, pH, and acidity content were 73.03±2.25%, 0.44±0.05 g/s, 0.16±0.01 g/s, 21.80±0.20%, 4.223±0.006, and 1.14±0.06%, respectively. 105 ConclusionAccording to the analysis results of extractor performance and the quality of the product, both of extract and fermented beverage, it can be concluded that the appropriate extractor to obtain the best quality of wheatgrass extract and fermented beverage was by using twin-gear type extractor with the yield, processing capacity, extraction rate, TSS content, pH, and acidity content were 73.03±2.25%, 0.44±0.05 g/s, 0.16±0.01 g/s, 21.80±0.20%, 4.223±0.006, and 1.14±0.06%, respectively. However, if only observed by the fermentation process, the variation of extractor used in this study did not have big significance differences for each parameter analysis results, especially on the pH and acidity level.