Production and Analyses of Coffee from Petai Belalang (Leucaena leucocephala)

Petai Belalang (PB) is the leguminous plant that has a potential source in the production of healthy coffee. Mimosine Free (MF) and Wild Variety (WV) PB seeds were compared and treated with the same treatment in the coffee production which is drying, roasting as well as grinding. The solubility of the PB coffees (MF and WV) in 1 :20 and 1 :80 dilution factors were determined and compared "with Sarawak Liberica (SL) coffee and the result was expressed as solubility(%). Both MF (46.4% and 55.2%) and WV (43.2% and 50.4%) PB coffee had been proved to have similar solubility in different dilution fator when compared with SL coffee ( 41.8% and 48.8%). The main interest of this project is the antioxidant properties contain in the PB seed as coffee substitute. Antioxidant activity of PB coffees (MF and WV) were determined by the Ferric Reducing Antioxidant Power (FRAP) assay and the results show each type of coffee showed different ability to reduce TPTZ-Fe (III) complex to TPTZ-Fe (II) complex. It was observed that MF and WV PB coffee shows high antioxidant activity (234.833 and 220.309 µg/mL) as compared to SL coffee (91.738 µg/mL). Moreover, identification of total phenolic and flavonoids compound as well as mimosine content inside PB coffees and SL coffee were determined using High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC). The result shows only Kaempferol was highly presence in all type of coffees, while no presence of mimosine content was observed. In conclusion, PB coffee showed remarkable potential as coffee substitute, concomitantly exhibiting the commercial and health potentials of PB coffee