Content of Fungal Body in Soy Koji

Abstract

One of the characteristics in soy sauce manufacture is that the whole raw materials, wheat and soybean, are changed together into koji fully grown with. Aspergillus sojae. Therefore, not only from the enzymatic point of view, but also the amount itself of fungal body should be taken into account for preparation of soy mash.
In the present paper we tried to know at least an approximate content of fungal body, mycelia plus conidia, by using the specifically high content of glucosamine in mold. Glucosamine level in raw materials was obtained as 0.95% in dry basis, whereas in fungal mat 9.9%. Fortunately, the contents in mycelia and in conidia were fairly the same.
Glucosamine level was determined in each soy koji prepared by culturing for different days and the content of fungal body was calculated as: 3-days koji; 13%, 4-days koji; 17%, and an old 10-days koji; 28%.