Assessment of Caffeine-degrading Ability on Bacterial Strains Klebsiella sp. Isolated from Feces of Asian Palm Civet (Luwak)

Abstract

Asian palm civet (APC) known as Luwak, has an important role in producing the most expensive coffee in the world, Kopi Luwak, which is excreted from its feces. The bacterial diversity in the feces of APC was rarely explored, especially for decaffeination. In the present study, aerobic caffeine-degrading bacteria were successfully isolated from the feces of bred Luwak or Asian palm civet (Paradoxurus hermaphrodite) in Wonosobo (LW) and Lumajang (LL), Java Island-Indonesia and identified using 16s rRNA gene. After identification, they were known as Klebsiella (coded LW1 & LL1). Further, the ability of caffeine degradation was assessed using a Caffeine Agar Medium and Caffeine Liquid Medium (CLM), which were M9 mineral salt with the particular concentration of caffeine. As the additional carbon source, 5 g l 1 of sucrose was added into CLM. Residual caffeine concentration in the CLM was measured periodically using RV/UV-HPLC. LW1 and LL1 were detected  to degrade 0.5 g L-1 of caffeine entirely in the CLM for 3 days. If 1 g L-1 of caffeine was introduced, only 63 and 66% of caffeine were degraded respectively for LW1 and LL1. Theobromine did not appear in the CLM, indicated that C8-oxidation is their catabolic pathway. Kinetic parameters of cell growth also have been determined using the different substrate inhibition models to find experimental kinetic data. This is the first report of caffeine-degrading bacteria isolated from the feces of Asian palm civet.

Keywords

• asian palm civet
• caffeine
• decaffeination
• inhibition kinetics
• klebsiella
• specific growth
• substrate