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Fermentation performance of fungal strains in faba bean model medium: growth and carbohydrate utilization

Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: Faba bean is a highly nutritious legume, but because it has some carbohydrates that cause flatulence and digestive discomfort, particularly raffinose-family oligosaccharides (RFOs), this limits its widespread application. Yeasts, commonly occurring in traditional food fermentations, can also be used as starter cultures to improve food flavor and nutrition. However, yeast performance has not been systematically compared in a reproducible faba-bean model medium and not much is known about their behavior in legume fermentation. Therefore, this study screened 26 fungal strains from 13 genera, including 24 yeasts (such as Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Pichia membranifaciens, and Geotrichum candidum) and two filamentous fungi (Mucor racemosus and Mucor circinelloides), isolated from traditional fermented foods (bors and sourdough), to evaluate their fermentation performance in a model medium prepared from faba bean flour. First, the 26 strains were cultured in the faba bean model medium at 30 °C for 24 hours, and their growth ability was evaluated by optical density (OD600) and plate counting, and their acidification was evaluated by pH measurement. Then, ethanol production was measured by using a digital refractometer (ΔBrix) to preliminarily assess the fermentation ability of the different fungal strains. Finally, the carbohydrate profiles of the top 5 performing strains were analyzed using high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The results showed that all 26 strains could grow in this medium, but their performance varied significantly. Saccharomyces cerevisiae HF-IBB 1204 showed the best growing performance, with the highest increase of OD600 (0.477 ± 0.011) and cell density (1.93 ± 0.04 log10 CFU/mL). The next best performers were S. cerevisiae HF-IBB 1082 and Kluyveromyces marxianus HF-IBB 1007. HPLC analysis indicated that most strains (HF-IBB 1007, HF-IBB 1082, HF-IBB 1204, and HF-IBB 1237) could effectively degrade verbascose to very low levels; HF-IBB 1204 and HF-IBB 1141 substantially decreased stachyose, and HF-IBB 1204 almost completely degraded it. Because higher oligosaccharides (such as stachyose or verbascose) are partially degraded into raffinose, fermentation with HF-IBB 1082, HF-IBB 1141, and HF-IBB 1237 led to a clear increase in raffinose content, while HF-IBB 1204 could almost completely degrade it. In summary, S. cerevisiae HF-IBB 1204 showed the greatest performance for faba bean fermentation in this study, as it grew rapidly and effectively decreased the levels of undesirable carbohydrates. Maudiozyma bulderi HF-IBB 1141 significantly decreased stachyose and verbascose. Although it led to some increase of raffinose, the overall RFOs decreased. In the future, more studies should further validate the performance of these strains in whole faba bean matrices and evaluate more comprehensively the effects of fermentation.
Language: English
Subfield: Food Science
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7212408977
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