THE AVAILABILITY OF A LACTOSE MEDIUM FOR TEA FUNGUS CULTURE AND KOMBUCHA FERMENTATION

Authors:
Sinisa L. Markov, Dragoljub D. Cvetkovic, Aleksandra S. Velicanski

Abstract:
Kombucha is a traditional beverage that is prepared by fermenting sucrose-sweetenedd black tea. A medium is inoculated with a cellulose pellicle (popularly known as a "tea fungus") or fermentation brough from the previous cultivation process. Our aim was to test the possibility of obtaining a Kombucha beverage using different concentrations of lactose as an alternative source of C-atoms. A traditinoal medium sweetened with sucrose or without sugar was used as control. Without lactose-fermentinog yeast strains in tea fungus, lactose is not an adequate alternative source of the C-atom for Kombucha fermentation because it is not possible to obtain Kombucha with an appropriate acidity during a seven-day fermentation. Compared with the traditional medium, fermentation is significantly slower with high differences in acid content. In unsweetened tea inoculated with the beverage obtained from a previous tradtiioanl process, Kombucha fermentationt processes and prodcus a beverage without sugar and alcohol.

Keywords: kombucha, tea fungus, lactose, unsweetened tea



Country: Serbia

Citation: Archives of Biological Sciences, 64(4), 1439-1447.

Study Mailing Address:
Faculty of Technology, University of Novi Sad, 21000 Novi Sad, Serbia

Date Updated: February 11, 2021