LWT - Food Science and Technology 65 (2016) 543e548

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LWT - Food Science and Technology

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/lwt

The impact of onion juice on milk fermentation by Lactobacillus

acidophilus
Sha Li a, b, Chengjie Ma a, b, *, Guangyu Gong a, Zhenmin Liu a, Chao Chang c, Zhiping Xu a, b
a
State Key Laboratory of Dairy Biotechnology, Technology Center of Bright Dairy & Food Co., Ltd., 1518 Jiangchang Road (W), Shanghai 200436, China
b
Wuhan Bright Dairy Co., Ltd., 1 Zhangbai Road, Wuhan 430040, China
c
College of Food Science and Engineering, Wuhan Polytechnic University, 68 Xuefu Road (S), Changqing Garden, Wuhan, 430023, China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of onion juice on the fermentation of milk by
Received 4 March 2015 Lactobacillus acidophilus. The onion juice significantly stimulated the growth and acidification of the
Received in revised form bacterial strain L. acidophilus NCFM. The viable cell counts in onion-supplemented fermented milk were
12 August 2015
higher than that of the control sample and were maintained during cold storage. We considered the
Accepted 14 August 2015
Available online 17 August 2015
whole constituents of onion juice such as polyphenols, sulfur compounds, fructans, and minerals
together to play the stimulatory roles and result in this beneficial effect for L. acidophilus viability during
fermentation and storage. After the milk was fermented by L. acidophilus NCFM, the antioxidant capacity
Keywords:
Lactobacillus acidophilus
decreased greatly in the control and onion-supplemented fermented milk. The results suggested that it
Onion juice was very necessary and crucial to scavenge radical for L. acidophilus growth. The onion juice was slightly
Viable cell count beneficial to enhancing the antioxidant capacity of fermented milk. The higher cell numbers, the less
Antioxidant capacity fermentation time, the better antioxidant capacity, and more abundant flavor components were achieved
Flavor compound by onion-supplemented fermentation by L. acidophilus, demonstrating the potential for industrial
applications.
© 2015 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

1. Introduction
Lactobacillus acidophilus NCFM is a common commercial bac-
terial strain used in the manufacturing of dairy products
(Kailasapathy, Harmstorf, & Philips, 2007). Research has shown that
it is capable of protecting the host by improving lactose digestion,
preventing or lessening the impact of diarrhea, improving blood
lipid chemistry, stimulating an immune response, and potentially
killing cancer cells as they develop (Sanders & Klaenhammer,
2001). To realize the health benefits of L. acidophilus, an adequate
number of viable cells must be delivered at the time of consump-
tion (Pescuma, He
bert, Mozzi, & de Valdez, 2010). However, the
viable cells of probiotics significantly decrease during cold storage
because of acid accumulation, interaction with starter cultures,
levels of dissolved oxygen and hydrogen peroxide, and storage
conditions (Donkor, Henriksson, Vasiljevic, & Shah, 2006;
* Corresponding author. State Key Laboratory of Dairy Biotechnology, Technology
Center of Bright Dairy & Food Co., Ltd., 1518 Jiangchang Road (W), Shanghai 200436,
China.
E-mail address: chengjiema99@gmail.com (C. Ma).
Talwalkar & Kailasapathy, 2003). Ng, Yeung, and Tong (2011)
found that the toxic oxygenic metabolites produced by yogurt
starter cultures were critical factors in impairing the survival of
L. acidophilus NCFM. Because of this, there are an increasing num-
ber of researchers attempting to produce fermented milk only with
L. acidophilus and to maintain or promote the viability of
L. acidophilus throughout the product shelf life by making the
environment more favorable to L. acidophilus. Hervert-Hern
andez,
Pintado, Rotger, and Gon ~ i (2009) found that grape pomace
phenolic extract induced a significant biomass increase of
L. acidophilus growth. More recently, Oliveira, Perego, Oliveira, and
Converti (2011) found that inulin could improve the growth of
L. acidophilus in fermented skim milk.
Some researchers have found that a major part of phytochemi-
cals are not absorbed in the small intestine, but that they can
interact with colonic microbiota, stimulating the growth of lactic
acid bacteria (LAB) and having antimicrobial activity against many
pathogens (Scalbert & Williamson, 2000). Najgebauer-Lejko, Sady,
Grega, and Walczycka (2011) reported that the addition of tea
extract containing polyphenols had a positive effect on yogurt
starter microflora. Additionally, Michael, Phebus, and Schmidt

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.lwt.2015.08.042
0023-6438/© 2015 Published by Elsevier Ltd.
544 S. Li et al. / LWT - Food Science and Technology 65 (2016) 543e548
(2010) found that plant extracts possessing antioxidant capacity
extended the longevity of Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus
during storage.
Onions (Allium cepa L.) are one of most widely consumed veg-
etables in Europe (mainly in UK, Holland and Spain) and Asia
countries (mainly in China, India and Japan). Onion adequately
processed could be useful in the food industry to be added to foods
due to the increasing demand by consumers for substituting syn-
thetic compounds by natural substances as functional food in-
gredients. Compounds of inherently natural origin would be widely
accepted by consumers in the market (Jang, Sanada, Ushio, Tanaka,
& Ohshima, 2002). There is an increasing interest in onions due to
their high level of phytochemicals. Among these, flavonoids, fruc-
tans, and organosulfur compounds are considered important
contributing factors to antioxidant activity (Siddiq, Roidoung, Sogi,
& Dolan, 2013). For these reasons, the onion has been widely
researched for its antioxidant functions and antimicrobial proper-
ties against pathogenic microorganisms (Albishi, John, Al-Khalifa, &
Shahidi, 2013; Lee, Jung, & Kim, 2012). The onion may exert a
double positive effect on fermented milk production, on the one
hand stimulating LAB and inhibiting pathogenic bacteria, and on
the other hand improving nutritional values and health effects.
However, the stimulatory role of onions on LAB, and especially
L. acidophilus, has rarely been investigated. In addition, organo-
sulfur compounds have a distinct flavor and are identified as the
characteristic flavor compounds in onions (Gyawali et al., 2006).
Adding onion juice to milk, therefore, may provide the benefit of
adding flavor to fermented milk.
In this study, onion juice was added to milk to investigate the
effects of onion juice on the growth of L. acidophilus NCFM. The
antioxidant capacity and flavor compounds of fermented milk were
also evaluated.
2. Materials and methods
2.1. Preparation of onion juice
The fresh onion (commercially available) was cleaned and cut
into pieces, and then mixed with same amount of sterile distilled
water by weight. The initial onion juice was extracted from the
mixture using a Philips juicer (HR 1861, Philips China Investment
Co., Ltd., Zhuhai, China), and then centrifuged (10,000
g, 10 min).
The supernatant was filtered to obtain the final onion juice used in
the experiment. This juice was refrigerated at 4  C until use.
2.2. Preparation of fermented milk
The fermented milk was prepared according to Lucey (2004)
with slight modifications. Onion juice (0, 20, 60, and 100 g/kg)
was added into fresh cow's milk, and distilled water, respectively at
100, 80, 40, and 0 g/kg, was added into the onion juice to stan-
dardize the levels of protein and fat. The mixtures were stirred with
a stirrer RW20 (IKA, Staufen, Germany) at 600 rpm for 5 min at
65  C, and then homogenized under high pressure (18 MPa) at 65  C
and heat-treated at 95  C for 90 min immediately in order to kill all
the microorganisms, bacterial spores and fungal spores in milk and
onions due to low growth activity of L. acidophilus in milk. Cooled to
37  C, samples (each sample of two replicates) were inoculated
with L. acidophilus NCFM (Danisco, New Century, KS, USA) at
5
106 CFU/g. A set of samples were maintained at 37  C in an MIR-
253 incubator (Sanyo, Osaka, Japan). Another set of samples were
monitored automatically (recorded every 5 min) during milk
acidification for pH using a Cinac system (Alliance Instruments,
Mery-Sur-Oise, France), and the corresponding sample were
removed to terminate fermentation until a pH of 4.50 ± 0.03 (the
pH end point) was reached. After samples were stirred at 500 rpm
for 5 min, they were stored at 4  C.
2.3. Determination of titratable acidity
The titratable acidity (TA) of fermented milk samples was
determined according to Yang et al. (2012) on day 1 and after 14
days of cold storage.
2.4. Enumeration of L. acidophilus
A standard plate count was used to enumerate viable
L. acidophilus cells according to Ng et al. (2011) with slight modi-
fications. Fermented milk samples were serially diluted using
sterile saline to achieve 20 to 200 colonies on MRS (de Man, Rogosa
and Sharpe) agar plates. L. acidophilus was cultured under anaer-
obic conditions (Bugbox Anaerobic System, Ruskinn, Bridgend,
United Kingdom) with a mixture of 95% N2 and 5% CO2 at 37  C for
72 h.
2.5. Determination of antioxidant capacity (AOC)
For the determination of the AOC of non-fermented milk or
fermented milk, the diphenyl picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) method ac-
cording to Najgebauer-Lejko et al. (2011) was used in this study. It is
a simple, sensitive, and widely used method to measure the radical
scavenging activity of all the antioxidant substances (including
protein, glutathione, lipoic, etc.) present in the examined sample.
The amount of sample required to decrease the initial DPPH con-
centration by 50% (EC50) was calculated. Antioxidant capacity was
given as AOC, the reciprocal of EC50. The AOC was calculated rela-
tive to the AOC of Trolox, an analog of vitamin E, and expressed as
mmol/TEg of sample.
2.6. Determination of volatile compounds
The fermented milk containing 60 g/kg onion juice and the
control fermented milk were chosen for the detection of volatile
compounds.
Headspace solid-phase micro-extraction (SPME) was used to
extract volatile compounds from the fermented milk samples ac-
cording to Li et al. (2014). The fiber used for manual extraction was
DVB/CAR/PDMS (Supelco, Bellefonte, PA, USA).
Analysis of the volatile compounds was performed using an
Agilent 7890 (II) gas chromatograph (Agilent Technologies, Santa
Clara, CA, USA) coupled to an Agilent 5975 series mass selective
detector. The SPME fiber was inserted into the injection port that
was held at 250  C, and the compounds were thermally desorbed
for 4 min under split (1:10) conditions (Welty, Marshall, Grün, &
Ellersieck, 2001). A DB-Wax column 30 m
0.25 mm
0.25 mm
(Agilent Technologies, Santa Clara, CA, USA) was used to separate
the volatile compounds. The temperature of the column was held at
45  C for 5 min, ramped up by 10  C/min to 80  C, and then further
heated to 240  C at the rate of 5  C/min. The carrier gas was helium
(1 mL/min). The mass spectrometer was run in the electron impact
mode at 70 eV. The mass scan range was 25e400 m/z (Condurso,
Verzera, Romeo, Ziino, & Conte, 2008).
2.7. Statistical analysis
All data were reported as the mean or mean ± standard devia-
tion. Physicochemical experiments were carried out in triplicate. The
data was analyzed with ANOVA using Statistica 9.2 software (Stat
Soft, Inc., Tulsa, OK, USA). The comparison between means was
carried out using the Tukey's significant difference test (p < 0.05).
 S. Li et al. / LWT - Food Science and Technology 65 (2016) 543e548
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Effects of onion juice addition on acidification of L. acidophilus
The pH values of samples during fermentation are shown in
Fig. 1. With low levels (60 g/kg) of onion juice added, there was an
increase in acidification rates with increasing onion juice content.
However, when the content of onion juice reached 60 g/kg, the
maximum acidifying rate occurred. The results showed that addi-
tion of onion juice into fresh cow's milk exerted a stimulatory effect
on fermentation.
A possible explanation for the stimulatory effect was that
L. acidophilus possessed the ability to utilize compounds supplied
by onion juice during growth, such as phytochemicals, poly-
saccharides, vitamins, and/or minerals. Hervert-Herna
ndez et al.
(2009) found that grape polyphenols induced a significant
biomass increase of L. acidophilus during growth in liquid culture
media. However, not all plant extracts that were able to inhibit
pathogenic bacteria could stimulate fermentation by LAB. Yang
et al. (2012) found that ginger juice would inhibit the growth of
Streptococcus thermophilus and Lactobacillus bulgaricus and could
reduce the production of lactic acid.
The TA values of samples during cold storage are illustrated in
Fig. 2. The TA of all samples increased over the 14 days of storage.
The more onion juice that was added into the milk base, the
significantly higher (p < 0.05) the TA of the sample was after
storage. However, there was not a significant difference (p > 0.05)
in TA when the onion juice content was higher than 60 g/kg. These
results indicated that adding onion juice may promote the pro-
duction of acid even at high acid concentrations and low
temperatures.
According to previous studies, L. acidophilus possesses several
mechanisms to counteract acid stress (Altermann et al., 2005;
Azcarate-Peril, Altermann, Hoover-Fitzula, Cano, & Klaenhammer,
2004). Kullen and Klaenhammer (1999) reported that the F1F0-
ATPase system maintaining the pHi was an important mechanism
for promoting survival in the presence of accumulating organic
acids.
3.2. Effect of onion juice addition on viable cell counts of
L. acidophilus
The viable cell counts of L. acidophilus in samples during storage
Fig. 1. Changes in the pH of samples added of onion juice (0 g/kg, 20 g/kg, 60 g/kg, and
100 g/kg) during fermentation.
545
are shown in Fig. 3. All onion juice supplemented samples con-
tained significantly higher levels of L. acidophilus than the control
sample (p < 0.05). Moreover, the viable cell counts of L. acidophilus
increased as the content of onion juice increased. In addition, there
was a significant decrease in viable cell counts of L. acidophilus
during storage when the content of onion juice was less than 20 g/
kg (p < 0.05), while the fermented milk containing 60 g/kg or
higher of onion juice had no significant decrease in viable cell
counts of L. acidophilus during cold storage (p > 0.05). Hence, the
onion juice had positive effects on the growth and maintenance of
L. acidophilus viability.
Several studies had confirmed the decrease in viability of pro-
biotics attributable to acid accumulation, interaction with starter
cultures, levels of dissolved oxygen and hydrogen peroxide, and
storage conditions (Donkor et al., 2006; Talwalkar & Kailasapathy,
2003). Adding onion juice not only promoted the production of
acid but also increased the viable cell counts, which indicated that
acid accumulation was not an important factor contributing to the
loss of L. acidophilus NCFM cell viability during storage. In general,
L. acidophilus does not possess a sufficient scavenging mechanism,
so the intracellular accumulation of toxic oxygenic metabolites
such as superoxide anion and hydroxyl radical can lead to its death
(Gilliland & Speck, 1977; Talwalkar & Kailasapathy, 2003). Ng et al.
(2011) also reported that L. acidophilus does not possess a catalase,
an enzyme hydrolyzing H2O2 into water and oxygen, so that
hydrogen peroxide might be an important factor resulting in the
loss of cell viability of L. acidophilus NCFM.
Onion is rich in antioxidant phenolic constituents such as
quercetin 3,40 -diglucoside, quercetin, and kaempferol that are
considered important contributing factors to antioxidant activity
(Albishi et al., 2013). These compounds might scavenge hydrogen
peroxide and protect L. acidophilus during the fermentation and
storage. Hervert-Hern
andez et al. (2009) found polyphenols pos-
sessing antioxidant functions had a stimulatory effect on
L. acidophilus, and a possible explanation for this would be that
L. acidophilus was able to use these compounds as substrates. On
the other hand, onions are a source of fructooligosaccharides, sulfur
compounds, vitamins, and minerals (Rolda
n, Sanchez-Moreno, de
Ancos, & Cano, 2008; Verde Mendez, Rodriguez Rodriguez, Diaz
Fig. 2. The titratable acidity of samples during storage: , day 1; D day 7; Q day 14;
bars with different letters denote significant differences (p < 0.05) among the samples
with different contents of onion juice added. Error bars with different letters denote
significant differences (p < 0.05) among the samples with different contents of onion
juice added and among the different storage periods.
546 S. Li et al. / LWT - Food Science and Technology 65 (2016) 543e548
Fig. 3. The viabilities of L. acidophilus in samples after storage: , day 1; D day 7; Q
day 14; bars with different letters denote significant differences (p < 0.05) among the
samples with different contents of onion juice added. Error bars with different letters
denote significant differences (p < 0.05) among the samples with different contents of
onion juice added and among the different storage periods.
Romero, Matallana Gonzalez, & Torija Isasa, 2008), which might
also account for the positive effects of its addition to milk. Babu,
Mital, and Garg (1992) reported that the addition of tomato juice
to skimmed milk stimulated the growth of L. acidophilus because of
sugars and minerals present in the juice. Sharma et al. (2013) re-
ported that Mnþ-metabolite complexes could protect essential
enzymes from oxidative damage. Therefore, it is probable that the
whole constituents of onion juice such as fructans, polyphenols,
sulfur compounds, and minerals together played the stimulatory
role and resulted in this beneficial effect for L. acidophilus viability
during fermentation and storage.
3.3. Antioxidant capacity of fermented milk
The AOCs of samples are presented in Fig. 4. It is noteworthy that
the AOC decreased significantly (p < 0.05) after the milk was fer-
mented by L. acidophilus NCFM (for example, AOC ¼ 0.783 before
fermentation vs. AOC ¼ 0.545 after fermentation in the control fer-
mented milk; AOC ¼ 0.836 before fermentation vs. AOC ¼ 0.578 after
fermentation in the fermented milk containing 60 g/kg onion juice).
It is possible that some antioxidant compounds were consumed and
considerable oxygenic metabolites were produced simultaneously
as L. acidophilus NCFM grew in milk. The results confirmed that it
was very necessary to scavenge radical for L. acidophilus growth. The
AOC of fermented milk containing onion juice was slightly higher
than that of control fermented milk (p < 0.05), which suggested that
antioxidants in onions might played a certain role in growth and
maintenance of L. acidophilus NCFM viability.
Some previous studies have confirmed that the high level of
antioxidant activity in onions was attributable to their flavonoid
constituents, namely quercetin, kaempferol, myricetin, and cate-

ndez et al. (2009) inferred
chin (Siddiq et al., 2013). Hervert-Herna
that L. acidophilus may be able to use polyphenols possessing
antioxidant functions as substrates. Hence, adding onion juice into
a milk base would be an effective method to increase the AOC of
fermented milk and to maintain the viability of L. acidophilus.
3.4. Volatile flavor compounds
The volatile compounds detected in the fermented milk samples
and control samples are given in Table 1. Twenty-three compounds,
consisting of 4 alcohols, 5 aldehydes, 5 carboxylic acids, 3 ketones,
and 6 sulfur compounds, were identified in the 4 samples.
As seen in Table 1, propanal, 2-methyl-2-butenal, and 6 sulfur
compounds that had been identified as main volatile compounds of
onions were detected in both the fermented sample (60 g/kg onion
juice) and its control sample (60 g/kg onion juice, not fermented by
L. acidophilus). Moreover, comparing the sulfur compound contents
in the two samples, most sulfur compounds had significantly
decreased after fermentation (p < 0.05). The results confirmed that
L. acidophilus was able to utilize these compounds from onion juice
to supply energy to L. acidophilus during growth.
Acids produced in fermentation are the major components
causing the sour taste of fermented milk (Tamime & Robinson,
2007). Many carboxylic acids were detected in the fermented
milk samples. However, none of them was detected in the control
samples (not fermented by L. acidophilus). Previous studies have
shown that butanoic acid and hexanoic acid were produced by
lactose fermentation, and that hexanoic acid could also be formed
by lipolysis of free fatty acids (Ott, Fay, & Chaintreau, 1997). In
addition, comparing the contents of acids in the two fermented
milk samples, there were more carboxylic acids in the fermented
sample with 60 g/kg of onion juice added. The stimulatory effect of
onion juice on producing acid observed in this investigation by
might be attributed to flavonoid, fructans and minerals, consistent
with the result of acidification of L. acidophilus.
Flavonoids are one of the abundant phenolic-type bioactive
compounds commonly found in vegetables and fruits, which been
categorized as flavonoid, flavanol, flavanone, flavone, anthocyani-
din, and isoflavon (Wach, Pyrzyn
ska, & Biesaga, 2007). The total
flavonoid concentration was obtained at 89.6 mg/kg fresh onions by
summing the concentrations corresponding to all the identified
flavonoids (Rodríguez Galdo
n, Rodríguez Rodríguez, & Díaz
Romero, 2008). Fructans such as oligosaccharides and fructooligo-
saccharides are the other bioactive compounds in onion with the
total concentration of about 18 mg/kg of fresh weight (Rodríguez
Galdo
n, Tasco

n Rodríguez, Rodríguez Rodríguez, & Díaz Romero,
2009), which with falvonoids show a variety of pharmacological
effects in stimulating the metabolism of microbial cells, including
L. acidophilus (China et al., 2012; Kaplan & Hutkins, 2000). Several
Fig. 4. The antioxidant capacity (AOC) of samples: , before fermentation; D day 1; G
day 7; Q day 14; bars with different letters denote significant differences (p < 0.05)
among the samples with different contents of onion juice added. Error bars with
different letters denote significant differences (p < 0.05) among the samples with
different contents of onion juice added and among the different storage periods.
 S. Li et al. / LWT - Food Science and Technology 65 (2016) 543e548 547

Table 1
Results of volatile compounds analysis of four samples, showing the averaged peak areas (in arbitrary unit
1000).

Compound Averaged peak area
1000

Sample 1 Sample 2 Sample 3 Sample 4

d b c
Hexanol 62.6 ± 1.2 109.4 ± 3.5 73.9 ± 1.5 132.8 ± 4.8a
Heptanol 29.6 ± 0.8d 311.8 ± 5.6b 42.1 ± 1.7c 697.8 ± 7.2a
Octanol 113.9 ± 4.7b 119.2 ± 2.8b 93.2 ± 1.7c 129.8 ± 1.5a
Furanmethanol ND 166.2 ± 3.3a ND 171.3 ± 4.2a
Propanal ND ND 353.1 ± 5.8a 98.7 ± 1.8b
Hexanal 219.5 ± 3.5c 421.5 ± 7.6a 68.1 ± 0.6d 335.6 ± 4.4b
Octanal 136.2 ± 1.7c 264.2 ± 3.8a 32.4 ± 0.4d 189.1 ± 1.4b
Benzaldehyde 240.0 ± 5.2c 659.3 ± 6.9a 86.1 ± 1.1d 310.7 ± 1.5b
2-methyl-2-butenal ND ND 6999.9 ± 32.1a 5656.6 ± 28.7b
Propanoic acid ND ND ND 107.5 ± 1.8
Butanoic acid ND 724.4 ± 7.8b ND 790.6 ± 8.9a
Hexanoic acid ND 2821.5 ± 24.4b ND 3247.4 ± 28.9a
Octanoic acid ND 829.9 ± 8.9b ND 1341.2 ± 10.2a
Decanoic acid ND 92.4 ± 1.3b ND 190.5 ± 2.1a
Heptanone 3262.5 ± 30.1c 3060.1 ± 33.5d 6160.1 ± 37.6a 4341.0 ± 31.5b
Nonanone 3464.4 ± 28.9a 1334.9 ± 11.8d 2163.2 ± 21.6b 1475.5 ± 19.9c
Undecanone 847.0 ± 7.5a 212.8 ± 4.3d 624.9 ± 6.7b 368.1 ± 5.7c
Dimethyl disulfide ND ND 3266.1 ± 41.2a 1725.7 ± 31.5b
Methyl propyl disulfide ND ND 1803.4 ± 15.6a 1581.4 ± 14.3b
Methyl propenyl disulfide ND ND 123.4 ± 1.9b 237.1 ± 2.1a
Dimethyl trisulfide ND ND 2256.2 ± 22.5a 1832.9 ± 11.5b
Dipropyl trisulfide ND ND 255.0 ± 1.3a 123.4 ± 0.9b
2, 4-Dimethyl thiophene ND ND 2239.7 ± 22.5a 2158.8 ± 18.4b

All values are mean of three replications ±SD. Different superscript letters in the same row indicate significant differences at P < 0.05. ND: not detected. Sample 1: 0 g/kg onion
juice & not fermented; Sample 2: 0 g/kg onion juice & fermented; Sample 3: 60 g/kg onion juice & not fermented; Sample 4: 60 g/kg onion juice and fermented.

other interesting studies concerning the ability of L. acidophilus to
growth in the presence of fructans. Rendo
n-Huerta, Jua
rez-Flores,
Pinos-Rodríguez, Aguirre-Rivera, and Delgado-Portales (2011) re-
ported that the lower pH values of the medium and the higher cell
counts were achieved in vitro growth of L. acidophilus with fructans
of Cichorium intybus, Helianthus tuberosus and Agave angustifolia
spp. tequilana. Pehrson, Mancilha, and Pereira (2014) reported that
L. acidophilus strain grew well in the medium containing fructans as
main carbohydrate sources, which a cellular viability significantly
higher in this group than in the negative control.
Alcohol, aldehyde, and ketone are also important to the flavor of
fermented milk. Comparing the alcohol and ketone contents in the
two fermented milk samples, there were more of these compounds
in the fermented sample with 60 g/kg of onion juice added, but the
aldehyde content was the opposite: more was found in the control
sample. Aldehyde is labile and has a high level of activity. When the
fermented milk was supplemented with onion juice having
considerable antioxidant substances, part of the aldehyde might
have been reduced to alcohol or other compounds. Overall, adding
onion juice into milk increased the volatile compounds in fer-
mented milk and changed their flavor compounds profile.
4. Conclusion
The onion juice significantly stimulated the growth and acidi-
fication of L. acidophilus NCFM. The maximum acidifying rate was
observed for when 60 g/kg of onion juice was added to the fer-
mented milk sample. Probably, the whole constituents of onion
juice together played the stimulatory roles and resulted in this
beneficial effect for L. acidophilus viability. During cold storage, not
only did adding onion juice promote the production of acids by
L. acidophilus NCFM, but it also exerted a positive effect on the
maintenance of L. acidophilus NCFM viability. Hence, rather than
the accumulation of lactic acid, the accumulation of toxic oxygenic
metabolites may be the main reason for impaired survival of
L. acidophilus NCFM during storage. Onion juice was beneficial to
shortening the fermentation time, enriching the flavor components
and slightly enhancing the antioxidant capacity of fermented milk.
This study showed a potential application of adding onion juice to
the fermented milk production process.
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by National High Technology Research
and Development Program of China (2011AA100901), and the Na-
tional Key Technologies Program of China (2013BAD18B01) during
the 12th Five-Year Plan Period.
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