Banana Vinegars Production Using Thermotolerant Acetobacter pasteurianus Isolated From Ivorian Palm Wine

Abstract

Vinegar or sour wine is a product of alcoholic and subsequent acetous fermentation of sugary precursors. Among acetic acid producing bacteria, only few genera ( Acetobacter and Gluconobacter) are used in vinegar industry. In this paper, we intended to produce vinegar at 37 °C using two Acetobacter pasteurianus strains (S3 and S32). These species were isolated from palm ( Elaeis guineensis) wine and presented potentialities for industrial vinegar production at 37 °C. Successive fermentations were carried up and semi-continuous acetous fermentation was performed to increase acid production. Concentrated bananas ( Musa ssp.) juice (11°Brix) was fermented using Saccharomyces cerevisae within 7 days, yielding 6.4% alcohol. After fermentation, 60 and 58 g/L acetic acid were produced in vinegars obtained using S3 and S32 stains respectively in 34 days and 5 flow cycles. Malic and acetic acids were the most substantial acids produced in alcoholic juice with 5 631.473 and 2 833.055 mg/L respectively. Among the eight organic acids responsible for vinegars total acidity, acetic acid was major compound with 23 459.416 and 21 268.407 mg/L for S3 and S32 strains respectively. Alcohol and acetic acid fermentation efficiency were 90.9% and 85.39 - 87.63% respectively. All the results above showed that S3 and S32 strains revealed great potentialities for successful industrial vinegar production from overripe banana.