Abstract
In a previous study conducted in our laboratory, we performed a survey on the distribution of lactic acid bacteria (LAB) during the fermentation process of fermented black beans (dochi). In this study,31 dochi samples were collected from markets and analyzed for LAB. Twenty-three acidproducing bacteria were isolated from marketed dochi samples. These isolates were subsequently divided into classes by phenotypes of restriction fragment length polymorphisms of 16S ribosomal DNA. Phenotypic and biochemical characteristics revealed that the LAB collected belonged to six bacterial groups (A-F), most of which were homofermentative.Enterococcus faecium was the most abundant of the dochi-isolated LAB, as was previously found in the dochi fermentation process. These results suggest that Ent. faecium is the main LAB present in marketed dochi. Furthermore, the antibacterial activities of isolates were determined and two isolates showed antibacterial activities against the indicator strain Lactobacillus sakei JCM 1157T.
