Starter Concentrations Affect the Antibacterial Activity, Chemical and Microbiological Characteristics of Fermented Ginger Functional Drink

Abstract

The current trend in functional drinks is to utilize spices, one of them is ginger, related to the bioactive compounds they contain. So ginger has the potential to provide health benefits and inhibit bacterial growth. Fermented ginger beverages using ginger bug as a starter with various concentrations effect the quality of fermented beverages. The purpose of the study was to determine the population growth of microorganisms in the ginger bug, and to analyze the microbiological characteristics (count of lactic acid bacteria, yeast, and mold), chemical characteristics (titratable acidity and pH), and also the inhibition of microbes of fermented ginger functional drinks with different concentrations of ginger bug. A Completely Randomized Design was used with ginger bug concentration treatments consisting of 5%, 10%, 15%, 20% and 25%. This research can represent ginger bug population data of 5,5 x 10⁶ CFU/ml of lactic acid bacteria and 1x10³ CFU/ml of yeast and mold. The conclusion is concentration of ginger bug 15% produced high inhibition activity of bacteria 4.82 mm; total BAL 4.69x10^7; yeast &mold 9.50x10^2; pH 4,17; titratable acidity 0,68%; by the requirements of SNI for fermented drinks.

Keywords: antibacterial activity, ginger bug, ginger, chemical, microbiological