Description:
Fructants are the main carbohydrates of reserve in the Agave genus, comprising between the 65 to 97% of total carbohydrates. cooked musts obtained from some Agave plants are used to produce fermented spirtits such as tequila and mezcal. Main microorganisms involved in these fermentations belong to the Sacharomyces complex, and some strains of these species show fructanase activity, which is characterized by the hydrolusis of B-2,1 and B-2,6 linkages of the fructrans to release fructose. In this study we analysed the fructanase potential of four Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains isolated from Agave spp must. Specifically, the enxymatic extracts of theses yeasts were obtained under diffent induction conditions by using iulin, sucrose or levan and quantifying their fructanase activity over sucrose, unulin and levan. The exzymatic extracts did not hydrolize sucrose, but had an activity between 2 to 8% over inulin and levan. Best hydrolysis percentage on levan substrate were obtained for strains S. cerevisiae 3y8 (6%) and Fermichampo (8%) when these were induced with levan. Finally best incubation time for levan and inulin hydrolysis was 40 min.