Development of Growth Media for Bacillus amyloliquefaciens subsp. plantarum, a Poultry Probiotic Candidate

Bacillus amiloliquefaciens subsp. plantarum is a poultry probiotic candidate due to its ability to produce three important digestive enzymes; protease, amylase, and cellulase. In its application, the bacterial isolate needs to be cultivated in mass scale, therefore requires a lot of growth medium. Thus, this study aimed at developing low-cost media to replace expensive commercial growth media for culturing the probiont. Three media (two media developed by using two local sources) and one commercial LB medium as the control were used to culture B. amiloliquefaciens subsp. plantarum. Growth was measured in terms of Optical Density (OD), and total harvested bacterial biomass (mg). The results indicated that there was no significant difference in OD of the probiont measured at the three media, which indicates that both local source-based media could support the growth of the probiont at the same rate as the commercial medium. Furthermore, total biomass of the probiont harvested from palm sugar medium was significantly higher (12.130 mg/mL), compared to either tofu wastewater (10.870 mg/mL), or LB medium (7.800 mg/mL). This result suggests that palm sugar medium was the most suitable medium for culturing B. amyloliquefaciens subsp. plantarum on a mass scale. However, the quantity and activity of enzyme synthesized by the bacterium cultured in the local source medium should be further investigated.