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Other from Cameroon

Mbuja (fermented Hibiscus seed, Cameroon)mbuja

Mbuja is a condiment from Cameroon made from roselle (Hibiscus sabdariffa) seeds. The seeds are boiled, seeded with a little mbuja from an earlier batch and fermented ten days in an earthenware pot, closed for the first seven days, with a pounding after the seventh day. Bacillus grows to dominate while lactic acid bacteria rise and fall in two waves.

Fully documentedOther10 days

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceThe amounts are those of a laboratory batch made with traditional techniques and earthenware pots in the 2014 study. The sources give no household amounts.
Roselle seeds500 gCooked by boiling in water[Mohammadou2014]
Mbuja from an earlier batch5 gThe study used the batch a consumer panel liked best[Mohammadou2014]
Starterbackslop with mbuja from a previous production

Total time across the recorded steps: 10 days

Start
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What changes: Roselle seeds are boiled in water

Step 1 of 5
Boil the seeds
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Lactic acid bacteria

Output: cooked seeds.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

Not documented for this step.

Method

Measured measured in a studySet fixed by a specification or tested recipeReported one source reports itTypical a general value, not sourced for this fermentUnconfirmed not yet checked against a source

At a glance

Mbuja is a condiment from Cameroon made from roselle (Hibiscus sabdariffa) seeds. The seeds are boiled, seeded with a little mbuja from an earlier batch and fermented ten days in an earthenware pot, closed for the first seven days, with a pounding after the seventh day. Bacillus grows to dominate while lactic acid bacteria rise and fall in two waves. Made in 5 steps over 10 days. The longest step, first phase in a closed earthenware pot, takes 7 days (Mohammadou B.A 2014). Bacillus spp. (B. subtilis, B. megaterium, B. pumilus and B. amyloliquefaciens were isolated from mbuja in earlier studies); after the first 2 days Bacillus grows faster than the lactic bacteria and Lactic acid bacteria do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step7 daysReported[Mohammadou2014]First phase in a closed earthenware pot

What makes this one different

Mbuja is fermented ten days in two phases in earthenware pots, with a pounding in between. Benin's yanyanku, also from roselle seed, was cooked one hour in ash filtrate and fermented in covered baskets under jute sacks at 26–28 °C; in the 2019 study 36 h was judged enough. Yanyanku is used as a starter for locust-bean sonru and iru [Agbobatinkpo2019].

Related ferments

Safety

In the 2014 study Staphylococcus and Streptomyces made up 41 % each of the day-7 clones and were not found at day 10, when almost all clones were Bacillus. The authors link the staphylococci to possible poor hygiene in making the inoculum and Streptomyces to the earthenware pots. Bacillus cereus has been isolated from mbuja in earlier work, and two B. thuringiensis strains among 26 Bacillus isolates carried toxin genes [Mohammadou2014, Mohammadou2014b]. The authors suggest selected Bacillus starter cultures for a more controlled fermentation. The sources set no numerical limit.

Hazards the sources name: Bacillus cereus (isolated from mbuja in earlier studies); Bacillus thuringiensis (2 of 26 Bacillus strains from mbuja, the only ones carrying toxin-encoding genes).

History and sources

Every number is labelled with how it is known. How this atlas is made

Mbuja is made by alkaline fermentation of Hibiscus seeds in Cameroon. A 2008 Cameroon study, cited by Agbobatinkpo et al. (2019), found Bacillus at 9.88 log cfu/g and lactic acid bacteria at 7.43 log cfu/g at the end of fermentation.

Temperature, salt and pH
The sources we found give no temperature, salt or pH figure for any of its steps.
  1. [Mohammadou2014] Mohammadou B.A., Mbofung C.M., Barbier G., Rey P. 2014, Polyphasic approach to monitor the bacterial population dynamics in fermenting Hibiscus sabdariffa seeds to produce Mbuja, Int. J. Curr. Microbiol. App. Sci. 3(6):333–346paper
  2. [Agbobatinkpo2019] Agbobatinkpo P.B., Azokpota P., Hounhouigan J.D. 2019, Dynamique de la fermentation des graines de bissap pour la production du yanyanku et du ikpiru, deux ferments traditionnels produits au Bénin, Annales des Sciences Agronomiques 23(2):171–182 (discussion citing Mohamadou et al. 2008)paper
  3. [Mohammadou2014b] Mohammadou B.A., Le Blay G., Mbofung C.M., Barbier G. 2014, Antimicrobial activities, toxinogenic potential and sensitivity to antibiotics of Bacillus strains isolated from Mbuja, an Hibiscus sabdariffa fermented seeds from Cameroon, African Journal of Biotechnology 13(35):3617–3627paper