Opuntia ficus-indica cladodes are by-products which contain high amounts of fibres, bioactive and functional compounds. Given their high annual productivity per hectare, cladodes represent a cheap and suitable substrate, usable for fermentation processes. We investigated their potential as a substrate for the growth and production of lactic acid from Lactobacillus acidophilus LA-5. A separate hydrolysis and fermentation was performed. The concentration of reducing sugars obtained after the dilute acid and enzymatic hydrolysis was 28.45 g/L. The lactobacillus count ranged from 6.03 to 8.1 log CFU/mL, whereas lactic acid yield and productivity were 0.63 g/g and 0.73 g/L h, respectively. The maximum lactic acid concentration was found to be 17.5 g/L. This study reports the possibility of using the O. ficus indica cladode for lactic acid production by LA-5 aiming to reduce costs for sustainable industrial production.
Keywords: Fermentation; LA-5; Lactobacillus acidophilus; Opuntia ficus indica; hydrolysis; lactic acid; nopale cladode.