Abstract
This study was undertaken to find the optimum soy-peptone, glucose, yeast extract, and magnesium sulfate amounts for the maximum growth of Lactobacillus plantarum JNU 2116 and to assess the effects of these medium factors through the use of response surface methodology. A central composite design was used as the experimental design for the allocation of treatment combinations. In the analysis of the experiment, due to a significant lack of fit of the second-order polynomial regression model that was used at first, cubic terms were added to the model, and then two-way interaction terms were deleted from the model since they were found to be all statistically insignificant. A relative comparison among the four factors showed that the growth of L. plantarum JNU 2116 was affected strongly by yeast extract, moderately by glucose and peptone, and slightly by magnesium sulfate. The estimated optimum amounts of the medium factors for the growth of L. plantarum JNU 2116 are as follows: soy-peptone 0.213%, glucose 1.232%, yeast extract 1.97%, and magnesium sulfate 0.08%. These results may contribute to the production of L. plantarum L67 as a starter culture that may have potential application in yogurt and fermented meat products.