Abstract
Japanese pickling vegetables“Tsukemono” are a vast domain in Japanese cuisine. Pickles began in ancient times as a means of preserving food, and over the years pickles became an important part of the Japanese meal. Vegetables most commonly pickled in Japanese are Chinese cabbage, radish（daikon）, radish greens, cucumber and Japanese eggplant. Pickles offer color, texture and aroma to a meal. Pickles are crisp and always fresh, with small amounts of several varieties usually served in individual petite dishes. Ecologically, lactic acid bacteria in fermented vegetables（exam.“Suguki-dzuke” in Kyoto）habitat were either Gram negative aerobic and facultatively anaerobic organisms and resistant salt. In the community of lactic acid bacteria, dominant species was Leuconostoc mesenteroides at low temperature, and Lactobacillus plantarum at higher temperature. The more temperature was increased, the more organic acids were produced. Acid production could be divided into two phase: most of organic acids formed at the first phase were always achieved by L. mesenteroides at every temperature and one formed at the second phase by L. plantarum. Salt was the most important limiting factor, because fermeted vegetables was not made without the treatment of salt.
