Effects of adding isolated Lactobacillus plantarum, Leuconostoc mesenteroides, and their mixtures on the quality indices of pickled Chinese cabbage

Pickled Chinese cabbage traditional fermented vegetables is popular in China, especially the northeast, owing to their special flavors. Spontaneous fermented Chinese cabbage usually has rich and mellow flavor because of abundant microorganism in the fermentation broth. In our study, LAB were screened from spontaneous Chinese cabbage and identified including morphology, physiology and biochemistry, and molecular levels. 11 of these were used as a single inocula to ferment Chinese cabbage, and acid contents, soluble sugar contents, Vc contents, cellulose contents and nitrite contents of these pickled Chinese cabbage were measured. Overall, three superior strains mixture(X1, M2, and D2) were inoculated to improve the fermentation characteristics of pickled Chinese cabbage. Furthermore, pickled Chinese cabbage with the mixture had the highest acid and Vc contents, the lowest nitrite content, and medium fiber content. The sensory quality mixed inocula was also the best compared with products prepared with single strain and spontaneous fermentation. Keywords: Lactobacillus plantarum; Leuconostoc mesenteroides; pickled Chinese cabbage, mixed LAB