Abstract Shaoxing Huangjiu contains bioactive compounds mediating its health benefits. To investigate these compounds during fermentation, 500 mL fermentation broth were collected at four time points (Days 1, 5, 15, and 19) with three biological replicates each. Quantitative analysis confirmed six target bioactive compounds. Total polyphenols, total flavonoids, and gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) remained above 100 mg/L throughout fermentation; total polyphenols and GABA reached maxima on Day 15 at 576.83±10.41 mg/L and 215.12±4.76 mg/L, respectively. Glutathione (GSH) and individual phenolic acids were below 4 mg/L. Isomaltooligosaccharides peaked on Day 5 at 6.62±1.73 g/L. GC-MS analysis identified nine potential volatile bioactive compounds (such as terpenoid alcohols and medium-chain fatty acids) at μg/L levels. This compositional shift was accompanied by microbial succession, with Saccharomyces cerevisiae becoming dominant (4.25% to 43.38%). Based on this, Saccharomyces cerevisiae N85 was subjected to 60Co gamma-ray mutagenesis to screen for GABA-enhanced mutants. The optimized mutant C59 exhibited a 72.09% increase in GABA yield. In this study, a traditional mutagenesis approach was employed to generate the GABA-enhanced mutant strain C59, offering a potential microbial candidate for future industrial application.
Zhang et al. (2026) studied this question.