Lactic Acid Fermentation of Sweet Potato

Shorttitle: Lactic Fermentation of Sweet Potato Sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas L.) is an important root crop grown all over the world. Sweet potato roots, being rich in starch, minerals, vitamins and anti- oxidants like phenolics, β-carotene or anthocyanin, is suitable for lactic acid fermentation. Roots of sweet potato were fermented to prepare three novel food products, i.e. lacto- pickle, lacto- juice and curd. Lacto-pickles were prepared by fermenting the cut and blanched roots with Lactobacillus plantarum MTCC 1407. Sweet potato roots were grated and treated with 0.05% of commercial pectinase enzyme (Pectinex®, Novoenzyme) in order to extract the juice. The extracted juice was fermented with L. plantarum for 48h to make lacto-juice. Sweet potato curd was prepared by co- fermenting β-carotene or anthocyanin- rich sweet potato puree and cow milk with curd starter culture. In the concluding study, production, purification and characterization of α- amylase by L. plantarum has been investigated.