In Vitro Digestibility and Amino Acid Score of Rhizopus oligosporus Fermented Products by Domestic Soybean (Glycine max L.) Cultivars †Hye-Young Park, Hyun-Joo Kim, Jung Hyun Seo*, Hye Sun Choi
In vitro digestibility and protein digestibility corrected amino acid scores (PDCAAS) were investigated to verify the availability of protein in various Rhizopus oligosporus fermented products of domestic soybean (Glycine max L.) cultivars. Danbaegkong (DBK), Daepung (DP), Daewonkong (DWK), Saedanbaek (SDB), Seonyu (SY), and Cheongja4ho (CJ4) were used as raw samples, which were fermented using commercially available Rhizopus oligosporus for 48 h. All cultivars showed increased crude protein content after fermentation. The crude protein content of DBK and SDB was significantly higher than that of the other samples (55.12% in DBK and 54.22% in SDB) (p<0.001). CJ4 had the highest alanine content of 28.88 mg/g (p<0.001), and no significant difference in cysteine content was detected among the cultivars. In most of the fermented samples, the in vitro digestibility was 0.9 or higher, indicating high protein in the fermented samples. However, it is considered that restrictions on digestion are low. In DWK, the amino acid content and PDCAAS, which together indicate protein quality, were 0.917 and 0.855, respectively, confirming that it was the best cultivar to provide the raw material for fermentation. In conclusion Rhizopus oligosporus fermented soybean products can be considered a prospective source of protein with high utility value.