Molecular Characterization of Lactic Acid Producing Bacteria Isolated from Tiger nut (Cyperus esculentus L) tuber and Soybean (Glycine max L) seeds

Lactic acid-producing bacteria (LAB) are a diverse group of bacteria which play a crucial role in fermentation processes. They produce lactic acid a primary product of fermentation, by exploiting food substances like carbohydrates proteins and lipids, leading to the production of secondary metabolites such as alcohols, aldehydes, acids, esters and Sulphur. The aim of this study was to characterize lactic acid bacterial isolated from tiger nut tubers (Cyperus esculentus L) and soybean seeds (Glycine max L), using 16S rRNA gene. Lactic acid production was determined by titrimetric method from 0 to 48h. Four of the ten isolates, identified as: Lactobacillus plantarum strain AMA2A, L. fermentum strain AMA5, L. buchneri strain AMA11 and L. plantarum strain AMA14 produced percentage lactic acid of 1.27, 0.93, 0.86 and 0.92 respectively after 48h. This study has demonstrated that the lactic acid producing bacteria namely: Lactobacillus plantarum AMA2A, Lactobacillus fermentum AMA5, Lactobacillus buchneri AMA11 and Lactobacillus plantarum AMA14 could be isolated from tiger nut and soybean since these substrates contain sufficient ingredients or nutrients which serve as enabling environments for their proliferation