OPTIMIZATION OF FENUGREEK SEED POWDER FERMENTATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF THE FERMENTED PRODUCT

Abstract

Trigonella foenum graecum (Fenugreek) seed is well known for their phytochemical content and diverse biological activities. This study focused on optimization of aqueous fenugreek seed powder fermentation using yeast. Response surface technique was used for optimizing the fermentation process. The independent influencing variables, temperature (^oC) addition of quantity of yeast (%), and fermentation period (day) were modelled to correlate the number of viable cells as the response. The response surface model was further optimized for maximized viable cell count. To study the impact of fermentation in enhancing the nutritional and bio-functional properties, the fermented and unfermented product at optimal condition were comparatively investigated for phenolic content, antioxidant potential, chemical composition, amino acid profiling, and cytotoxicity assay. Both fermented and unfermented seed samples were analysed using Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis to compare the bioactive compounds that involved in bioconversion of substrate by yeast fermentation. The results indicated that the significant beneficial changes in the volatile component profile. Furthermore, high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) was utilized to analyse amino-acid profiling of both unfermented and fermented fenugreek seed powder using selected essential amino acids as standard positive control which was apparent that the fermented product showed increased amino acids level; highlighting its nutritional potential. In addition, the cytotoxicity capability of yeast-fermented product was assessed using an in vitro cytotoxicity assay on MCF -7 cancer cell lines.