Novel Leuconostoc starter culture systems for fermentation of kimchi, a fermented cabbage product

초록

Leuconostocs play important roles in the early stage of fermentation of kimchi, but the predominant Leuconostoc species remains unknown. To examine the predominant Leuconosotoc species during the early stage of kimchi fermentation, we prepared kimchi and characterized microbial components from it by previously developed multiplex PCR assay and a polyphasic method. Here we find L. gelidum and L. citreum as a dominant species of kimchi at 8 and 20 oC, respectively. L. citreum was remarkably maintained as over 95% of whole populations in L. citreum-treated kimchi over 5-day fermentation at 20 oC, while heterogeneous lactic acid bacteria were observed in control kimchi. Total acidity in L. citreum-treated kimchi was rather rapidly increased but stably maintained for 5 days, compared to its slow and prolonged increase in control kimchi. This same effect was observed at L. gelidum-treated kimchi with the exception of its slower growth at 8 oC. These results indicate that Leuconostoc starter cultures dominate over and retard the growth of other lactic acid bacteria in kimchi, suggesting these starter strains are sufficient to maintain the quality of kimchi for prolonged periods.