EFFECT OF PROBIOTIC FERMENTATION ON MINERAL CONTENT OF BANANA BASED FOOD MIXTURES

Abstract

Today, since the development of foods that promote health and wellbeing is the key priority of food industry, attempts have been made to develop probiotic food mixtures containing banana flour, green gram flour, soya flour, tomato, mango and papaya. 25 g of each mixture was mixed with 150 ml of distilled water and adjusted the pH to 4.5 and autoclaved at 121° C (1.5 kg/cm 2) for 15 mts. After cooling, this was inoculated with 300µl (119×10 6 cfu/ml) liquid culture of L.acidophilus (24 hour old culture) and incubated at 37° C for 24 hours. After fermentation it was freeze dried and the samples were analysed for their mineral content viz: calcium, potassium and iron. The unfermented samples served as control. There was no significant difference in the calcium and potassium content of fermented and unfermented samples. There was a significant increase in the iron content of fermented and unfermented food mixtures.

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EFFECT OF PROBIOTIC FERMENTATION ON MINERAL CONTENT OF
BANANA BASED FOOD MIXTURES
Sharon. C L ,Usha V, Aneena E R and Seeja Thomachan
Department of Home Science, College of Horticulture, Kerala Agricultural University, Thrissur, Kerala India – 690656
Abstract
Today, since the development of foods that promote health and wellbeing is the key priority of food
industry, attempts have been made to develop probiotic food mixtures containing banana flour, green
gram flour, soya flour, tomato, mango and papaya. 25 g of each mixture was mixed with 150 ml of
distilled water and adjusted the pH to 4.5 and autoclaved at 121° C (1.5 kg/cm2) for 15 mts. After
cooling, this was inoculated with 300µl (119×106 cfu/ml) liquid culture of L.acidophilus (24 hour old
culture) and incubated at 37° C for 24 hours. After fermentation it was freeze dried and the samples
were analysed for their mineral content viz: calcium, potassium and iron. The unfermented samples
served as control. There was no significant difference in the calcium and potassium content of
fermented and unfermented samples. There was a significant increase in the iron content of
fermented and unfermented food mixtures.
Keywords: Probiotic, L. acidophilus, Calcium, Potassium, Iron
I. INTRODUCTION
The science of human nutrition has moved from a focus on the prevention of nutrient
deficiencies to an emphasis on the health maintenance and reduced risk of chronic diseases [1].
Probiotic foods are those foods which contain a live microbiological culture either as a result of
fermentation or as an intentional addition to beneficially affect the host by improving the intestinal
microbial balance [2]. The beneficial effects of probiotic will depend on a number of factors including
the strain chosen, level of consumption, duration and frequency of exposure, and the physiological
condition of the individual [3].
Probiotic bacteria break down hydrocarbons which mean the food is being split into its most
basic elements. This allows almost total absorption through the digestive system. In this way probiotics
dramatically increase overall nutrition and enhance rapid cellular growth and development. Probiotics
also produce many important enzymes and increase the availability of vitamins and nutrients, especially
vitamin B, vitamin K, lactase, fatty acids and calcium [4].The market for foods that promote health
beyond providing basic nutrition is flourishing. Therefore, in the present study, an attempt has been
made to develop banana based probiotic fermented food mixtures and to analyse the mineral profile of
the developed food mixtures.
II. MATERIALS AND METHODS
A. Collection of raw materials and preparation of food mixtures
Raw banana (Nendran Musa AAB) was purchased from the local market. This was peeled,
washed, sliced and dried. The dried chips were powdered to a flour of 40 mesh size. This banana flour

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was used as a source of starch in all food mixtures. The foods selected for developing the probiotically
fermented food mixtures were defatted soya flour and green gram flour (as source of protein in the food
mixture), mango, papaya and tomato and these foods were purchased from the local market.
In the present study, L.acidophilus was used as the probiotic culture for the fermentation of food
mixtures. Pure cultures of L.acidophilus (MTCC 447) used was obtained from Institute of Microbial
Technology (IMTECH), Chandigarh
B. Development of food mixtures
The food mixture was fermented under optimum conditions with a control.
2.1. Autoclaved and fermented food mixture (FFM): The food mixture (25g) was mixed with 150ml
water and stirred to obtain uniform slurry. Adjusted the pH to 4.5 and autoclaved at 121° C (1.5 kg/cm2)
for 15 mts. After cooling this was inoculated with 300µl(119×106 cfu/ml) liquid culture of L.acidophilus
( 24 hour old culture) and incubated at 37° C for 24 hours. After fermentation it was freeze dried.
2.2. Autoclaved and unfermented food Mixture (UFFM): The food mixture (25g) was mixed with 150ml
water and stirred to obtain uniform slurry. Adjusted the pH to 4.5 and autoclaved at 121° C (1.5 kg/cm2)
for 15 mts. After cooling it was freeze dried.
C. Mineral content of fermented and unfermented food mixtures
Calcium was estimated by titration method with EDTA [5]. Five ml of diacid extract made upto
100 ml was taken and added 100 ml water, 10 drops of hydroxylamine, 10 drops of triethanol amine and
2.5 ml of NaOH and 10 drops of calcone. Then it was titrated with EDTA till the appearance of
permanent blue colour. It was expressed in mg per 100 g of the sample.
The estimation of potassium was done using a flame photometer [6]. One gram of the digested
solution was made up to 25 ml and read directly in a flame photometer. The potassium content was
expressed in mg per 100 gm of the sample.
Iron was estimated by Atomic Absorption Sectrophotometric method using the diacid extract
prepared from the sample [7].
III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The foods selected for developing the probiotically fermented food mixtures were banana flour,
defatted soya flour, green gram flour ripe mango, papaya and tomato. Fourteen food mixtures with
various combinations were prepared and presented in Table1. All the food mixtures contained 60-70
percent banana as the major constituent and 20 percent of either defatted soya flour or green gram flour.
Fruit pulps viz mango, papaya and tomato either singly or in combination were present in 10 – 20 per
cent levels.

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Table 1. Food combinations in the fourteen food mixtures
Food mixtures
(Treatments)
Combinations (percent)
T1
B-70, DS-20, M-10
T2
B-60, DS-20, P-20
T3
B-60, DS-20, T-20
T4
B-70, GG-20, M-10
T5
B-70, GG-20, P-10
T6
B-60, GG-20, T-20
T7
B-60, DS-20, M-10, P-10
T8
B-60, DS-20, M-10, T-10
T9
B-70, DS-,20, P-5, T-5
T10
B-60, GG-20, M-10, P-10
T11
B-70, GG-20, M-5, T-5
T12
B-60, GG-20, P-10, T-10
T13
B-70, DS-20, M-3.34, P-3.34, T-3.34
T14
B-70, GG-20, M-3.34, P-3.34, T-3.34
B- Banana, DS- Defatted soya flour, GG- Green gram flour, M- Mango, T-Tomato, P-Papaya
Mineral content in fermented and unfermented food mixtures
There was a significant difference in the calcium content of FFM As revealed in Table 2. T3 had
the highest calcium content of 69.70 mg/100g whereas T10 and T12 showed the least calcium content of
43.82 mg/100g. High potassium content was observed in all FFM which varied from 304.67 mg in T2 to
492.67 mg/100g in T6 and T10 and the difference in the potassium content observed in FFM were
significant. Iron content of FFM ranged from 6.04mg in T5 to 6.99mg/ 100 g in T1 and the difference in
iron content was also found to be significant
Table 2. Calcium, potassium and iron in fermented food mixtures (mg/100g)
Values are mean of three independent determinations
Values with same superscript do not have significant difference
DMRT column wise comparison
Treatments
Calcium
Potassium
Iron
T1
67.77 j
305.33 h
6.99 a
T2
67.31 de
304.67 i
6.33 e
T3
69.70 a
396.67 d
6.79 c
T4
43.92 i
483.00 j
6.32 e
T5
44.71 g
468.00 k
6.04 h
T6
46.90 f
492.67 a
6.13 g
T7
68.25 b
307.33 g
6.13 g
T8
66.94 e
313.67 f
6.26 f
T9
69.12 a
306.00 e
6.24 f
T10
43.82 j
492.67 a
6.72 a
T11
44.22 h
486.00 b
6.85 b
T12
43.82 j
482.00 c
6.66 d
T13
67.41 cd
317.00 e
6.97 a
T14
45.00 g
487.00 b
6.28 f

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Table 3. Calcium, potassium and iron in unfermented food mixtures (mg/100g)
Values are mean of three independent determinations
Values with same superscript do not have significant difference
DMRT column wise comparison
A significant difference in the calcium content of UFFM was noted, which ranged between 43.36
mg/100g in T12 and 69.23mg/100g in T3. Potassium content ranged between 304.33mg/100g in T1 and
497.33mg/100g in T6 and the difference was significant. Iron content also showed a significant
difference which ranged from 6.04mg/100g in T5 to 6.90 mg/100g in T1. Thus a significant variation was
observed in the mineral content of UFFM.
FFM and UFFM were statistically compared for their calcium, potassium and iron by applying
independent sample‘t’ test and is presented in Table 4.
Table 4. Calcium, potassium and iron in fermented and unfermented food mixtures
Methods
Calcium(mg)
Potassium(mg)
Iron(mg)
FFM
56.35
403.00
6.481
UFFM
56.09
403.81
6.445
Mean difference
0.257
-0.809
0.036
t value
0.100
-0.043
1.957
Significance
0.921
0.966
.0001
NS
NS
S
There was no significant difference in the calcium and potassium content of fermented and
unfermented samples. There was a significant increase in the iron content of FFM than UFFM. A similar
result was reported regarding the mineral content in fermented foods [8] in which Rice-dehulled
blackgram blends were developed and fermented with whey at 35 °C for 18 h and did not significantly
change the total amount of calcium, phosphorus, and iron present in the blends. On the other hand, the
HCl-extractability of calcium, phosphorus, and iron was enhanced considerably after whey
incorporation and fermentation of cereal-legume blends.
Treatments
Calcium
Potassium
Iron
T1
67.693 d
304.333 h
6.90 a
T2
67.283 e
308.333 g
6.32 d
T3
69.233 b
393.333 e
6.77 b
T4
43.697 j
484.667 b
6.23 e
T5
44.640 g
468.000 d
6.04 g
T6
46.570 a
497.333 a
6.15 f
T7
67.400 e
307.000 a
6.17 f
T8
66.550 a
313.000 f
6.26 e
T9
68.843 a
312.667 f
6.21 e
T10
44.277 h
495.000 a
6.73 a
T11
43.887 i
486.333 b
6.74 b
T12
43.360 k
481.333 c
6.62 c
T13
66.817 a
316.000 e
6.85 a
T14
45.037 a
487.000 b
6.23 e

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Reduction in antinutrients due to fermentation may increase the bioavailability of various
minerals but there need not be any change in the total mineral content in fermented foods [9].
IV. Conclusion
Fermentation has been used for centuries as means of improving the keeping quality of foods.
Microorganism by virtue of their metabolic activities, contribute to the development of sensory, shelf
life and nutritional qualities of food. In the present study, the calcium, potassium and iron content of the
fermented food mixtures ranged between 43.82 to 69.70 mg/100g, 304.67 to 492.67 mg/100 g and 6.04
to 6.99mg /100g respectively. There was no significant difference in the calcium and potassium content
of fermented and unfermented samples. There was a significant increase in the iron content of fermented
and unfermented samples.
V. Acknowledgement
The support from Department of Biotechnology (DBT), New Delhi is acknowledged.
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