Elucidation of aerobic bacteria diversity in neera water from coconut and nipa tree

Abstract

Neera water is among Malaysian favorite local beverage, there were a lot of studies on its composition and its nutrional value, however the microbial diversity inside the water has been understudy. Two type of neera water were collected and cultured on nutrient agar (NA) media. Single colonies of bacteria formed were selected and re-isolated on NA agar to obtain a pure culture and incubated at 37°C±1°C. The isolates were proceeded to further identification by morphological, biochemical and molecular analysis. 23 aerobic bacteria was isolated and identified in this research, 14 isolates were obtained from nipa neera and nine isolates were obtained from coconut neera. Those bacteria were identified as Serratia sp. Staphylococcus sp, Streptococcus sp. Bacillus sp., Microbacterium sp., Enterobacter cloacae, Klebsiella aerogenes, Bacillus cereus and Pantoea anthophila respectively. Most of the identified bacteria were first reported to be present in neera sap which show a good fundamentals knowledge for others researcher. The bacteria present in nipa neera water and coconut neera water were also found to be different.