Ana Yanina Bustos^1,2*, Carla Luciana Gerez³, Lina Goumana Mohtar Mohtar¹, Verónica Irene Paz Zanini⁴,
Mónica Azucena Nazareno¹, María Pía Taranto³ and Laura Beatriz Iturriaga¹

¹Research and Transference Centre of Santiago del Estero (CITSE – CONICET – UNSE), RN9, km 1125, AR-4206
 Santiago del Estero, Argentina
²San Pablo T University, Av. Solano Vera and Villa Nougués, AR-4129 Tucumán, Argentina
³Reference Centre for Lactobacilli (CERELA-CONICET), Chacabuco 145, AR-4000 San Miguel de Tucumán, Argentina
⁴Institute of Bionanotechnology (INBIONATEC-CONICET), RN9, km 1125, AR-4206 Santiago del Estero, Argentina

Article history:
Received: December 29, 2016
Accepted: May 16, 2017

Key words:
antioxidant activity, chia sourdough, Lactobacillus plantarum, phenolic compounds, physical properties

Summary:
In this work, autochthonous lactic acid bacteria (LAB) were isolated from chia (Salvia hispanica L.) dough and selected on the basis of the kinetics of acidification and proteolytic activity. Strain no. C8, identified as Lactobacillus plantarum C8, was selected and used as starter to obtain chia sourdough. Lactic acid fermentation increased the organic acid mass fractions (lactic, acetic and phenyl lactic acids to 12.3 g, 1.0 g and 23.8 µg per kg of dough respectively), and antioxidant activities, which increased by approx. 33–40 % compared to unfermented chia flour dough. In addition, total phenolic content increased 25 % and its composition was strongly modified after 24 h of fermentation by L. plantarum C8. Chlorogenic acid was only found in the fermented dough (2.5 mg/g), while ferulic acid was detected from the beginning of fermentation, being 32 % higher in chia sourdough (5.6 mg/g). The use of fermented chia sourdough improved the overall characteristics of white bread, including physical (e.g. reduced hardness and chewiness of the crumb) and antioxidant properties (25 % on average), compared to the white bread. These results indicate that the use of chia sourdough could be a promising alternative to improve the technological and antioxidant properties of wheat bread. In addition, this work has shown, for the first time, that lactic acid bacterium is able to ferment chia dough, improving its overall characteristics.

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