Soy Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Soy, including details on soy milk, soy protein, soya bean, benefits, dangers.

The comparative ability of four isolates of Bacillus subtilis to ferment soybeans into dawadawa.

Terlabie NN, Sakyi-Dawson E, Amoa-Awua WK

Ghana Food and Drugs Board, Private Mail Bag, Ho, Ghana.

In an attempt to develop starter cultures for fermenting soybeans into the traditional West African condiment dawadawa, four isolates of Bacillus subtilis: 24BP(2), 72RP(17), 72BP(30), and FpdBP(2), which had been selected from 42 Bacillus cultures in a previous study by the current authors, were used separately to produce soy-dawadawa. The accompanying microbiological and biochemical changes, including enzymatic activities, as well as the organoleptic quality of the products were evaluated including that of a control sample which was fermented spontaneously. Significant differences existed in the ability of the four isolates to hydrolyse the soybean proteins, starch, and fat to produce dawadawa. Bacillus subtilis 24BP(2) recorded the highest protease and amylolytic activities, 101 U/ml and 26.68 mg/ml, respectively, and liberated the most amino acids, 117.64 mg/g dry wt., during fermentation. Bacillus subtilis 24BP(2) also grew to the highest population of cells in the final product. Taste panelists found soybean dawadawa produced by each of the four isolates acceptable and rated soup flavoured with soy-dawadawa produced by Bacillus subtilis FpdBP(2) as the best sample. Panelists scored it higher than the control sample and soy-dawadawa produced by Bacillus subtilis 24BP(2) in that order.

Published 23 January 2006 in Int J Food Microbiol, 106(2): 145-52.
Full-text of this article is available online (may require subscription).

© 2004-2008 Soy Research Today. All Rights Reserved.