Comparative lactic acid fermentation with five Lactobacillus strains of supernatants made of extruded and saccharified chickpea flour.

Summary: Glucose‐rich supernatants were developed based on the enzymatic hydrolysis of raw and extruded chickpea flours first treated with alcalase® and then with a combination of alpha‐amylase and amyloglucosidase or only amyloglucosidase. The optimum treatments were the extruded hydrolysates further treated with amyloglucosidase 'EF(AMG)', or the raw chickpea flour treated with a combination of alpha‐amylase and amyloglucosidase 'RF (Amyl+AMG)'. The resulting supernatants were further fermented with five different strains of Lactobacillus and monitored for 24 h in terms of pH, titratable acidity, and microbial counts. Also, the glucose content and oligosaccharides, total protein, and viability were determined. Both supernatants presented a successful fermentation as estimated by the pH drop (<4.2), lactic acid produced (>0.7%), and microbial counts 9 log (CFU mL−1) which increased up to 5 log during the 24 h fermentation. However, the EF(AMG) supernatant induced fewer reductions in glucose and protein contents in comparison to the RF (Amyl+AMG) counterpart. Among bacteria, the strain Lp 29 in EF(AMG) showed the fastest growth rate (K) and the highest residual protein. In all cases, the proposed technology enhanced the growth of five Lactobacillus strains by taking advantage of the hydrolyzed chickpea chemical composition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]