Production of volatile compounds by Rhizopus oligosporus during soybean and barley tempeh fermentation

Rhizopus oligosporus Saito can ferment soybeans or cereal grains to tempeh, a sliceable cake with improved nutritional properties. Volatiles produced by different R. oligosporus strains grown on malt extract agar (MEA), barley and soybean were investigated. The effect of co-cultivation with Lactobacillus plantarum on the production of volatiles was also studied.

Volatile compounds were collected in situ by headspace diffusion and identified by GC-MS. The ten R. oligosporus strains that had different colony morphologies on MEA produced very similar volatile profiles, except for slight variations among the minor volatile compounds (e.g. sesquiterpenes). Likewise, practically no differences in volatile profiles were observed between three of the strains grown on soybeans.

In contrast, the R. oligosporus volatile profile on soybean was different from that on barley from the same strain. Co-cultivation with L. plantarum did not influence volatile production by R. oligosporus. The dominant compounds produced on all three substrates were ethanol, acetone, ethyl acetate, 2-butanone, 2-methyl-1-propanol, 3-methyl-1-butanol and 2-methyl-1-butanol.

Acetaldehyde and 2-methyl-propanal were also produced on MEA and barley, while 2-pentanone, methyl acetate, 2-butanol and 3-methyl-3-buten-1-ol were observed on soybeans. Ethanol, 2-methyl-1-butanol and 3-methyl-1-butanol were the most abundant volatile compounds produced on MEA and barley, while 2-butanone was the dominant volatile metabolite on soybean.

The mushroom odour compounds, 3-octanone and 1-octen-3-ol, were only detected from soybean and soybean tempeh.