preview

Fermentation Mic Essay

Decent Essays

Using Selective Media to Monitor the Fermentation Process of Cabbage and Cucumber, for Fourteen Days

Abstract:
Introduction:
The goal of the ecological succession lab is to demonstrate succession with the fermentation of cabbage and cucumbers. The cabbage will ferment into sauerkraut and the cucumber will ferment to pickles during fermentation process that will changes the species structure and the community of time. During the fermentation process we watched the pH become more acidic, since the desired bacteria would produce lactic acid. The lactic acid would control by inhibiting the spoilage of the cabbage or the cucumber. This was seen by the increase of the acidity in both of the environment, which was seen as the pH went …show more content…

Additional materials were, pH strips, test tubes, P-200 micropipette, 3-mL syringe and fermentation jar. The pH was measured with the aid of pH indicator strips, to determine if the pH was dropping or rising. The dilutions were performed with the P-200 micropippetor, the dilution factors changes through the experiment, in relation to the bacterial growth and ranged from 10-1 to 10-5. The fermentation jar was packed with ¼ of a head of lettuce and 5% salt-water solution from the sink. The 5% solution was achieved by using 25g of salt in 500mL of H2O. The TSA agar plates were the control environments, one aerobic and the other anaerobic. The WN5 was for the anaerobic and microaerophilic conditions and had cyclohexane and 5% salt that selects for bacteria. The PS agar dish had CFC supplement (cetrimide, fucidin and cephalonidine) and Irgasam. The EC dish had bile salt that selected for Gram-negative bacteria. The LSA plate allowed for the differentiation of lactobacilli and streptococci. All of the above plates were incubated at room temperature of 25°C. The plates were counted for formed colonies on the following days: 0,2,7,9 and 14; also the pH was taken. The pH was taken by removing some of the fermentation liquid and placed on the indicator strip.
Results:
The cabbage pH went from a neutral 7.0 to 4.0, which was relatively acidic. Refer to figure 1 and 2 to see how the population of each bacterium changed from day 0 to 14.

Get Access