Coffee beans that move by way of the digestive tracts of animals get their distinctive flavors from the exercise of gut microbes, report researchers from the Institute of Science Tokyo. The guts of Asian elephants that produce Black Ivory coffee (BIC) had been wealthy in pectin-digesting bacteria. Heat-driven degradation of pectin throughout roasting makes coffee bitter. Bacterial exercise that reduces the pectin content material of BIC might be the supply of its smoother, chocolaty, and fewer bitter flavor.
Investigating Pectin-Degrading Gut Bacteria in the Production of Black Ivory Coffee (BIC)
With lots of of hundreds of thousands of cups consumed every single day, coffee is one of the hottest drinks in the world. Many natural molecules mix to present coffee its flavor, and practically each coffee drinker likes a special flavor profile that’s “just theirs.” The meals trade has developed some ways of processing coffee beans to alter the ratios of these molecules and create the distinctive flavors customers can take pleasure in.
One significantly fascinating course of includes passing coffee beans by way of the digestive tracts of animals. An rising instance is Black Ivory coffee (BIC). BIC is made in just one elephant sanctuary in Thailand. Asian elephants are fed Arabica coffee cherries, and beans collected from their dung are processed for human consumption. BIC is prized for its clean, chocolaty flavor, and it’s much less bitter than common coffee.
A analysis group led by Associate Professor Takuji Yamada and Research Fellow Nodoka Chiba from the School of Life Science and Technology, the Institute of Science Tokyo (Science Tokyo), Japan, have tried to determine the biochemical processes that give BIC its distinctive flavor. Their work, revealed in Volume 15 of the journal Scientific Reports on November 18, 2025, helps uncover some of the secrets and techniques behind BIC.
“Our previous study revealed that Gluconobacter was the dominant genus in the gut of civet cats, and it may produce volatile compounds from the coffee beans, suggesting that microbial metabolism contributes to the coffee aroma,” says Yamada. He provides, “These findings raised the question of whether the gut microbiome of elephants similarly influences the flavor of BIC.”
The group analyzed contemporary dung from elephants producing BIC, in addition to from management elephants dwelling in the similar elephant sanctuary. The solely distinction of their diets is that BIC-producing elephants obtained an extra snack of bananas, rice bran, and entire coffee cherries. Any variations in the content material and composition of fecal microbes could be as a consequence of this snack.
Yamada’s group discovered that BIC-producing elephants’ dung was unusually wealthy in pectin-digesting enzymes. 16S ribosomal RNA evaluation confirmed that these elephants additionally had a extra various gut microbiome, with an abundance of Acinetobacter and different pectin-digesting species. “Interestingly, Acinetobacter has also been detected on the surface of coffee beans. This suggests that ingestion of coffee beans may lead to the colonization of specific microbes in the gut of elephants,” remarks Yamada.
Pectin in coffee beans is partially damaged down by the warmth of roasting and appears to kind bitter-tasting compounds reminiscent of 2-furfuryl furan. Previous research confirmed that BIC had a lot decrease ranges of 2-furfuryl furan than common coffee beans. These earlier findings seem like defined by the discovery of pectin-digesting bacteria in the gut of BIC-producing elephants. Since pectin is partially digested as the beans move by way of the elephants’ guts, there’s much less obtainable to kind 2-furfuryl furan when the beans are roasted.
“Our findings may highlight a potential molecular mechanism by which the gut microbiota of BIC elephants contributes to the flavor of BIC,” says Yamada as he describes these thrilling findings. “Further experimental validation is required to test this hypothesis, such as a biochemical analysis of coffee bean components before and after passage through the elephant’s digestive tract,” he provides, pointing to avenues for future analysis into this method for processing coffee.
Nevertheless, this research gives a basis for additional exploration of animal-microbiome interactions in meals fermentation and flavor improvement. Continued analysis into particular microbial metabolic mechanisms might assist the improvement of various and distinctive flavor profiles in the future!
- Authors:
- Nodoka Chiba1, Vachiranee Limviphuvadh2, Chong Han Ng3, Ryuto Koyagi1, Yuta Kino1,
Yuya Nakamura1,6, and Takuji Yamada1,4,5,6*
*Corresponding creator - Title:
- Preliminary Study of Gut Microbiome Influence on Black Ivory Coffee Fermentation in Asian Elephants
- Journal:
- Scientific Reports
- Affiliations:
- 1School of Life Science and Technology, Institute of Science Tokyo, Japan
2Biomolecular Sequence to Function Division (BSFD), Bioinformatics Institute (BII), Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), Singapore
3Faculty of Information Science & Technology, Multimedia University, Malaysia
4Metagen, Inc., Japan
5Metagen Therapeutics, Inc., Japan
6digzyme, Inc., Japan