Banana Vinegars Production Using Thermotolerant Acetobacter pasteurianus Isolated From Ivorian Palm Wine

Vinegar or sour wine is a product of alcoholic and subsequent acetous fermentation of sugary precursors. Among acetic acid producing bacteria, only few genera (Acetobacter and Gluconobacter) are used in vinegar industry. In this paper, we intended to produce vinegar at 37 °C using two Acetobacter pasteurianus strains (S3 and S32). These species were isolated from palm (Elaeis guineensis) wine and presented potentialities for industrial vinegar production at 37 °C. Successive fermentations were carried up and semi-continuous acetous fermentation was performed to increase acid production. Concentrated bananas (Musa ssp.) juice (11°Brix) was fermented using Saccharomyces cerevisae within 7 days, yielding 6.4% alcohol. After fermentation, 60 and 58 g/L acetic acid were produced in vinegars obtained using S3 and S32 stains respectively in 34 days and 5 flow cycles. Malic and acetic acids were the most substantial acids produced in alcoholic juice with 5 631.473 and 2 833.055 mg/L respectively. Among the eight organic acids responsible for vinegars total acidity, acetic acid was major compound with 23 459.416 and 21 268.407 mg/L for S3 and S32 strains respectively. Alcohol and acetic acid fermentation efficiency were 90.9% and 85.39 - 87.63% respectively. All the results above showed that S3 and S32 strains revealed great potentialities for successful industrial vinegar production from overripe banana.