Potato dextrose agar (PDA) has been used traditionally as a general purpose medium for yeast and fungi detection and enumeration. Generally, it is used for plate court methods for foods, dairy and cosmetic products. Palm kernel expeller (PKE) is an agro commodity by-produxt that is produced throughout the year in Malaysia amounting to an average of 2.3 million tonnes, PKE contains 16.8% protein, 8.0% glucose, 1.8% xylose, 1.4% arabionose, 2.3% galactose, 41.7% mannose, 10.2% klason lignin and 4.4% ash (sugar in anhydrous form) and 5%-10% residual oil. The use of legumes as protein sources for microbial culture is limited. It is a challenge to produce a comparable standard culture media. Palm protein dextrose agar (PPDA) is a potential medium for yeast and fungi enumeration and alternative to PDA.

Main Research: Mohd Firdaus Othman