The objective of this study was to find useful fungi with α-amylase activity from the Korean traditional nuruk for the quality of traditional Korean alcoholic beverage. In this study, 165 samples of traditional nuruk were collected from 170 regions throughout Korea and the fungi were isolated to a total of 384 strains. In order to investigate the effect of microflora on nuruk, α-amylase activity, saccharogenic power (SP), starch hydrolysis activity and acid producing activity were evaluated. Ten strains were selected by α-amylase activity, which ranged from 458.47 to 1,202.75 U/g. The size of the discolored zone for the starch hydrolysis activity of each fungus ranged from 0.3 to 2 cm. The SP of the 10 strains ranged from 228.8 to 433.4 SP. Of the 10 stains, three were identified as Aspergillus oryzae, two as Aspergillus flavus, two as Lichtheimia sp., one as Rhizopus oryzae and two as other strains. The total aflatoxins present in the nuruks were examined using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. The 10 nuruks had less than 1.11 ppb of aflatoxins.
Keywords: Aflatoxins; Fungi; Nuruk; Saccharogenic power; α-Amylase activity.