IPB Student Utilizes Red Oncom and Propolis to Lower Cholesterol Content in Chicken
The chicken farm business has been developing and its number is increasing every year. This condition also increases the consumption of chicken meat. Because of that, it is necessary to have human resources that understand the importance of healthy food material, as society needs high quality and healthy animal proteins. Society expects to able to consume meat, but not ones that cause excessive cholesterol.
This issue became the research background of Rifai Anugrah, a student of Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences. His research, which was supervised by Dr. AE Zainal Hasan, was about lowering the cholesterol content in chicken.
Cholesterol is needed in the body, but it has a certain limit. The increase of cholesterol content in blood will cause an accumulation of cholesterol in artery walls. Thus, Rifai did the research to lower the cholesterol content by lowering the cholesterol content in the blood.
The decrease of cholesterol content can be done in several ways. One of them is by consuming food with high fiber content. Rifai chose to use oncom, a tofu dreg that has an abundant amount of crude fiber. "Tofu dreg was chosen because its utilization has not been done maximally all this time. Its utilization was only limited as feed, and it could not compete with human needs. The fermentation of tofu dreg to oncom will increase its crude fiber content, and its mold will synthesize carotene. This compound can lower cholesterol content", said Rifai.
Next, the chicken was given a feed that consisted of oncom and propolis. The feed was made by mixing a standardized feed with oncom and raw propolis, which was divided into five different compositions. After that, total cholesterol content was analyzed three times; right at the moment it was given, and in the first and second week after it was given.
The result showed that with the increase of propolis in the propolis and oncom compound, the cholesterol content in chicken would decrease. This was caused by the ability of propolis to prevent cholesterol biosynthesize. There was an inhibition process of propolis with HMG-KoA reductase, which is the key enzyme in cholesterol formation in the body.
When asked about his hope for this result research, Rifai said, "I hope that my research could help the chicken farmers produce a healthier chicken product that has good bodyweight for society. Hopefully, it could become a healthier food to consume." (CN)
