Production and characterization of a novel beverage from maize silk through fermentation with kombucha consortium

Abstract

Maize silk was taken as raw material, boiled, cooled and fermented by kombucha fungus to prepare maize silk kombucha beverage. The inoculation amount, initial sugar content and fermentation temperature of kombucha were selected as the influencing factors, and the total acid content of kombucha beverage was taken as the response value. Based on the single factor test, the Box-Benhnken response surface methodology was used to optimize the fermentation process. The results showed that the optimal fermentation conditions were as follows: kombucha fungus inoculation amount of 17%, initial sugar content of 18%, fermentation temperature of 30 °C, the total acid content of Kombucha beverage was 4.85 g/dL, which was basically consistent with the predicted value of the model.