Microbial ecology and nutritional features in liquid sourdough containing hemp flour fermented by lactic acid bacteria strains. null

Hemp seed flour (Cannabis sativa) is an alternative matrix to wheat for baked goods production. The aim of study was to investigate the microbiota of two liquid sourdoughs (SLs) hemp-based and wheat-hemp mixture-based through culture-dependent and -independent methods. The high-throughput sequencing of bacterial phylogenetic markers (V3-V4 regions of the 16S rRNA gene) was used to evaluate the microbial community associated before fermentation. Moreover, the effect of spontaneous and piloted fermentation by Lactiplantibacillus plantarum ITM21B or Weissella cibaria C43-11 strains, on the sourdough microbiota and its metabolism on nutritional and healthy molecules content (polyphenols, organic acids, proteins and amino acids) was investigat-ed. The microbial community of all SLs was mainly composed of Firmicutes and Proteobacteria and the latter was the only one phylum before fermentation in formulation producing exclusively with hemp flour. Two PCoA plots (Test adonis with pseudo-F ratio, P > 0.05) showed no significance difference between the microbial communities of formulations. However, the relative abundance variation at the family level, showed in wheat-hemp mixture-based SLs a significant enrichment of Lactobacillaceae family (Kruskal-wallis test, P = 0.04). Results confirmed hemp seeds flour as suitable substrate for fermentation to obtain increase in the content of organic acids, polyphenols and amino acids mainly in piloted fermentations, dependent by the metabolism of the starter strains.