High yield of tetramethylpyrazine in functional Fuqu using bacillus amyloliquefaciens

Fuqu is an important starter culture used for Chinese liquor brewing. And distillers’ grains (DGS) are the main by-product of the Chinese liquor industry. Tetramethylpyrazine (TTMP) is an important functional substance and key characteristic aroma component in Chinese liquor. A strain with high TTMP yield was identified as B. amyloliquefaciens XJB-104 and used to produce TTMP using DGS as the medium for solid-state fermentation (SSF). The cultures after SSF were used as Fuqu with high TTMP. DGS could be used as a raw material, and the production process for high TTMP producing Fuqu was developed. TTMP production (1.28 × 103 mg/kg, 365 mg/kg/d) using SSF for 3.5 d was higher than any previous results. Using SSF with DGS may provide a low-cost and effective strategy to produce high TTMP Fuqu.