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Food Research International xxx (2007) xxxxxx

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Eects of lactic acid fermentation on FT-IR and pasting properties

of rice our
Yong Yang
a

a,b

, Wen-Yi Tao

a,*

The Key Laboratory of Industrial Biotechnology, Ministry of Education, Southern Yangtze University, Wuxi 214036, China
b
School of Life Science, China Jiliang University, Hangzhou 310018, China
Received 23 January 2007; accepted 23 October 2007

Abstract
The Lactobacillus fermentum R1 and Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. delbrueckii R2 were two dominant lactic acid bacteria strains in
mixed starters, intensively used to manufacture fermented rice noodle in Hunan province of China. In this paper, the FT-IR and RVA
pasting properties of fermented rice our were investigated with each of dominant strains as single starter. The ester carbonyl group band
at 1742 cm 1 and IR absorbance band at 1047 cm 1 disappeared in the FT-IR spectra of fermented rice our. The FT-IR absorbance
band at 1046.86 cm 1 was detected only in non-fermented rice our. Both breakdown and setback RVA parameters of fermented rice
ours reduced. The results suggested that the eects of lactic acid fermentation of two dominant strains on the FT-IR and RVA pasting
properties of rice our were same and the crystal structures in starch granules were moderately damaged during fermentation process.
2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Lactobacillus fermentum; Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. delbrueckii; FT-IR; RVA pasting properties

1. Introduction
Lactic acid fermentation is one key process in the production of Chinese fermented rice noodles, an instant fresh
rice noodle consumed in south of China for many centuries
(Xu & He, 2005). With more attractive characters such as
white color, slight sour avor and high elasticity, the fermented rice noodles were favored by people not only in
south of China, but also in north of China and Southeastern Asia and European countries, compared with non-fermented rice noodle (Zhen & Lin, 2002).
The role of lactic acid bacteria (LAB) in food fermentation was summarized by Caplice and Fitzgerald (1999). The
mechanism of LAB fermentation on rice was explored by
Min, Li, Lu, Lou, and Tatsumi (2003), however, only
mixed cultures as starters were investigated. In this
*

Corresponding author. Tel.: +86 0 13093011962; fax: +86 510

85918516.
E-mail address: wytao1946@163.com (W.-Y. Tao).

research, the Lactobacillus fermentum R1 and Lactobacillus

delbrueckii subsp. delbrueckii R2, two dominant strains isolated from mixed starter of fermented rice noodle in Hunnan province of China, were used as single starter to
ferment rice our and the fermentation eects on rice our
of the two strains were studied.
Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy is less
time-consuming than chemical methods for following fermentation processes, giving the same relevant information
and allowing large screening experiments (Correia, Nunes,
Duarte, Barros, & Delgadillo, 2005).
The pasting behavior is helpful for understanding the
textural change and retrogradation potency of applied
products (Chen, Lai, & Lii, 2003). The pasting properties
can be measured using various instruments such as the
Brabender Amylograph, the Brookeld Viscometer and
most recently the Rapid Visco Analyser (RVA) (Yun &
Quail, 1999). The FT-IR and RVA pasting properties were
used to evaluate the eects of lactic acid fermentation on
rice our in this study.

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doi:10.1016/j.foodres.2007.10.011

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2. Materials and methods

4550 C over night. The dried rice our was screened with
100 mesh sieve and stored in a sealed glass bottle.

2.1. Rice our

2.5. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR)
Milled rice our (Oryza india cultivar, amylose over
24%) from Hunan province with 120150 lm particle size.
This our was used as control (sample 1) and fermentation
material to prepare samples 2 and 3.

FT-IR Spectrometer, Nicolet Nexus, Thermo Electron

Corporation, KBr Pellet. Bands at 4000400 cm 1 were
scanned and the spectra were processed with OMNIC 6.0.

2.2. Bacterial strains and growth conditions

2.6. Determination of the pasting properties

L. fermentum R1, and L. delbrueckii subsp. delbrueckii

R2, dominant LAB isolated from mixed starters of fermented rice noodles in Hunan province of China, stored
on MRS agar (Oxiod) slant at 4 C. Before rice our fermentation, the strains were transferred from MRS agar
to MRS broth (Oxiod), cultured at 30 C for 2448 h till
the LAB concentration was up to 108 cfu/mL and then
added into stu as starter.

Rapid Visco Analyser (RVA) (Newport Scientic

Instruments, Warriewood, Australia). Samples were dried
by vacuum drying oven, and 3 g our was used when the
water content was 14% (AACC Method 61-02).

2.3. Flour fermentation

Rice our (50 g), sterilized water (60 mL) and seed
liquid (1 mL) were mixed well into rice slurry, which was
sealed with silica gel plug in a sterilized ask and left to ferment at 30 C, for 24 h. The samples 2 and 3 were fermented, respectively, by L. fermentum R1 and L.
delbrueckii subsp. delbrueckii R2.
2.4. Flour preparation
The fermented rice slurry was centrifuged at 10,000g,
10 min (himac CR 22G, HITACHI). The sediment of wet
our was collected and dried in vacuum drying oven at

3. Results and discussion

3.1. The FT-IR spectrum of rice our
Dierences of FT-IR transmittance spectrum were
observed at 1741.52 cm 1 between non-fermented our
(sample 1) and fermented our (samples 2 and 3) while there
was no obvious dierence occurred between fermented our
(samples 2 and 3) at the exact wavelength (Fig. 1).
Since ester carbonyl group bands are at around 1750
1735 cm 1, results indicated that the lipid content was
reduced after lactic acid fermentation. It was also concluded that there were no new functional groups generated
during the fermentation process according to the FT-IR
spectrum.
A method based on FT-IR was developed for the determination of starch crystallinity. The IR absorbance band at
1047 cm 1 was sensitive to ordered or crystalline structure
and the band at 1022 cm 1 was associated with amorphous

Fig. 1. The FT-IR transmittance spectrum of rice our: 1. non-fermented rice our; 2/3. rice our fermented by L. fermentum R1/L. delbrueckii subsp.
delbrueckii R2.

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structure in starch (van Soest, Tournois, de Wit, & Vliegenthart, 1995). The intensity ratio of 1016 cm 1/
1045 cm 1 was used to calculate the ratio of amorphous
to crystalline phase in the starch citrates (Xie, Liu, &
Cui, 2006). As the starch content of rice is over 80% of
the total dry contents (Hettiarachchy, Ju, Siebenmorgen,
& Sharp, 2000), the method was also used to analyze the
FT-IR results of rice our in this study.
The FT-IR absorbance band at 1046.86 cm 1 was
detected only in sample 1 and the bands at 1022.55 cm 1
were contained within all three samples (Fig. 2), which suggested that the crystalline structure of starch gradually disappeared during the lactic acid fermentation and two
strains had same capability to decrease the ratio of crystalline starch to amorphous starch.

Table 1
RVA parameters of rice our
Sample

Peak 1
(cP)

Trough 1
(cP)

Breakdowna
(cP)

Final
viscosity (cP)

Setbackb
(cP)

1
2
3

2679
2088
2118

1907
1441
1419

772
647
699

4907
2906
2893

3000
1465
1474

1. Non-fermented rice our; 2/3. rice our fermented by L. fermentum R1/

L. delbrueckii subsp. delbrueckii R2.
a
Breakdown = peak 1 trough 1.
b
Setback = nal viscosity trough 1.

3.2. The RVA pasting property of rice our

The peak viscosity, nal viscosity, breakdown and setback of sample 1 were higher than that of samples 2 and
3, which had similar RVA parameters (Table 1). The setback of the rice our was halved from 3000 cP to 1470 cP
after the lactic acid fermentation, and the breakdown was
decreased from 772 cP to 673 cP (average). Similar phenomena were also observed in rice our when the rice our
was kept in a lower pH condition (Wang, Sun, Zeng, & Lu,
2000) and in corn starch when the corn starch was steeped
in lactic acid solution (Haros, Perez, & Rosell, 2004).
In Fig. 3, the RVA curves of the samples (1, 2 and 3)
were with same shape, which suggested that the properties
of rice our components had not been modied signicantly after fermentation, which was supported by the evidences from FT-IR in this study. The overlapped curves of
samples 2 and 3 indicated that the changes in rice our

Fig. 3. The RVA curves of rice our: 1. non-fermented rice our; 2/3. rice
our fermented by L. fermentum R1/L. delbrueckii subsp. delbrueckii R2.

after fermentation by L. fermentum R1, and L. delbrueckii

subsp. delbrueckii R2 were almost same.

Fig. 2. The FT-IR absorbance spectrum of rice our: 1. non-fermented rice our; 2/3. rice our fermented by L. fermentum R1/L. delbrueckii subsp.
delbrueckii R2.

Please cite this article in press as: Yang, Y., & Tao, W.-Y., Eects of lactic acid fermentation on FT-IR and pasting properties ...,
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Breakdown viscosity is a measurement of the susceptibility of cooked starch to disintegration, and setback viscosity measures the degree of hardening of cooked starch
during cooling (Chiang & Yeh, 2002). Breakdown is one
of the most important attributes of starch pastes that have
led to the widespread use of chemical cross-linking of
starch to reduce paste breakdown (Han & Hamaker,
2001). The breakdown of rice our was reduced after fermentation with both of LAB, which made great contributions to the rice paste formation in Chinese fermented
rice noodle manufacturing.
The retrogradation of the starch paste can be measured
through setback viscosity and the retrogradation of rice
starch was notably suppressed by decreased pH value (Wang
et al., 2000). The retrogradation of starch must be prevented
in the manufacture of Chinese fermented rice noodle (Xie
et al., 2006). The setback of rice our was sharply decreased
after the lactic acid fermentation, so the retrogradation of
fermented rice noodle was strongly prevented.
4. Conclusions
In short, the two dominant strain L. fermentum R1 and
L. delbrueckii subsp. delbrueckii R2 had same fermentative
activity on rice our and made almost same eects on the
FT-IR and pasting properties of the rice our, although
they belong to the hetero-fermentative and homo-fermentative LAB type, respectively. The rice our was moderately modied by the lactic acid fermentation, and the
breakdown and setback of the rice our were decreased
at the same time. The main reason for these changes was
the collapse of crystal structures in starch granules during
the fermentation process.
Acknowledgements
We are indebted to Xiaohong Gu for FT-IR test and
Chunli Jia for RVA analysis.

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Please cite this article in press as: Yang, Y., & Tao, W.-Y., Eects of lactic acid fermentation on FT-IR and pasting properties ...,
Food Research International (2007), doi:10.1016/j.foodres.2007.10.011