Thua nao: Alkali Fermented Soybean from Bacillus subtilis

Thua nao was a Thai alkali fermented product from soybean by Bacillus and it had a special flavour and aroma. The microorganisms involved in traditional thua nao were mixed natural flora of Bacillus, B. subtilis, B. megaterium and B. cereus, contaminated from cooked soybeans. The product had a very strong smell of ammonia. Ammonia content in dried product was lower than in the wet product. The increase of ammonia was controlled by fermentation under the atmosphere of CO2 or adding phosphate buffer (0.1 mol kg-1 wet wt KH2PO4, pH 6.5), which had no effect on the growth of Bacillus, proteolytic activity or amino acid formation. The major volatile compounds in thua nao were different from those found in natto, Japanese alkali fermented soybean. What is alkali fermented legume from Bacillus