Yeasts and lactic acid bacteria microbiota from masau (Ziziphus mauritiana) fruits and their fermented fruit pulp in Zimbabwe

Microbial and Chemical Diversity of Traditional Non-Cereal Based Alcoholic Beverages of Sub-Saharan Africa

“…Classical identification methods (such as culturing, enumeration, isolation, substrate utilization test, substrate assimilation test, staining and biochemical tests, to list a few) entailing the characterization of morphological, biochemical and physiological traits, have been widely accepted and described in the following texts [9,34,98,99]. The classical identification methods have several limitations including incorrect identification, poor resolution and inconsistent reproducibility due to the dependence on the physiological state of the cells when compared to molecular identification methods.…”

“…When back-slopping is used, the previous fermentis usually dominated by fermentative microorganisms, which solves to some extent the problem of variability of the product [5,9]. This is the most common practice at household level, in the production of many traditional alcoholic beverages.…”

“…The combination of lactic acid and acetic acid have been reported to enhance the flavor of alcoholic beverages [9,60,93,94]. Acetic acid is produced from the conversion of ethanol by Acetobacter spp.…”

“…For example, some of the yeasts isolated from masau fruits are able to utilize glucose, sucrose, maltose, galactose and raffinose while others were able to assimilate glucose, galactose, cellobiose, lactose, maltose, saccharose, trehalose, melezitose, raffinose, L-lysine, cadaverine and creatine [9]. The assimilation test is essential as it signifies which is the best chemical media to use for the isolated microbe at industrial scale, ensuring maximum utilization of the substrate to produce the product.…”

“…These include; chikokivana, a spirit produced from a mixture of maize meal, and millet malt popular in Zimbabwe [9], togwa of Tanzania, produced from sorghum, maize, and millet [10,11], burukutu, and pito-both popular indigenous alcoholic beverages of Nigeria produced from sorghum The mass production of non-cereal-based alcoholic beverages of Sub-Saharan Africa relies on uncontrolled spontaneous fermentation and exploits inexpensive substrates that are available in the locality, viz. palm tree fruits (Arecaceae family) and exudates, sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum), banana pulp (Musa acuminata), watermelons (Citrullus lanatus), Hyphaene petersiana (mokolwane/moxao) ( Figure 1), marula fruit (Sclerocaryabirrea) (Figure 2), Grewia flava (mogwana) (Figure 3), Grewia occidentalis (moretlwa), Grewia flavascens (mokgomphatha), Popowiaobovata, Balanites aegyptiaca, Berchemia discolor, Ziziphus mauritiana (masau), Kedrostis hirtella (mogakangwaga), Khadia acutipetala, cassava (Manihot esculenta), and honey [5,9,29,30]. Some of the beverages made from non-cereal substrate include muchema, palm wine, setopoti, bojalwa-ja-morula, khadi, mukumbi, urwagwa, pineapple wine, and tej.…”