Fermentation of an oat drink enriched with sunflower root inulin

Abstract

The use of secondary raw materials to obtain useful products is a relevant direction of research. So sunflower root remains in large quantities after harvesting sunflower. For example, in 2021, after harvesting sunflower, about 67 million tons of dry organic residues of this plant remained in the fields. The possibility to use sunflower roots for inulin production is interesting, so earlier sunflower roots were examined for the presence of inulin in it. Studies have shown that up to 10% of inulin can be found in sunflower roots. Inulin is a dietary fiber and a prebiotic and has a beneficial effect on the microbiome of the gastrointestinal tract. The development of fermented oat drinks will provide a combination of the functional properties of probiotic cultures with the prebiotic properties of inulin from sunflower root. In this article, two technological schemes for the production of a functional oat drink containing inulin extract from sunflower root are investigated. For the fermentation of the drink, lactic acid bacteria of the species Lactobacillus acidophilus were chosen. Several variants of beverage formulations were investigated. The dynamics of changes in the content of inulin during fermentation for 24 hours is presented.