Chemical, microbial, and metabolic analysis of Taisui cultured in honey solution

Taisui, a special substance occasionally found in China, can now be artificially cultured. In order to evaluate the safety of an artificially cultured Taisui (acTS) and develop it into fermented, functional food or oral liquid, the macronutrients, trace elements, microbial community, and extracellular metabolites of Taisui have been investigated in this study. Results showed that the concentrations of total carbohydrates, protein, fat, total ash, and moisture of wet acTS were 2.13 g/100 g, 0.13 g/100 g, 0.07 g/100 g, 0.04 g/100 g, and 88.3%, respectively. The concentrations of top three trace elements of K, Ca, and P, are 1,424.92 mg/kg, 159.96 mg/kg, and 67.89 mg/kg, respectively. Proteobacteria, Euryarchaeota, and Ascomycota were the dominant phyla of bacteria, archaea, and fungi, respectively. Uncultured_bacterium_f_Anaerolineaceae, Alcaligenes, and Ochrobactrum were the three most abundant genera of bacteria; Methanosaeta, Methanosphaera, and Natronomonas, the most abundant genera of archaea; Zygosaccharomyces, Mortierella, and Fusarium, the most abundant genera of fungi. There were 311 metabolites increased in acTS. Most of the metabolites are beneficial to human. These metabolites can be contributed to microbes in acTS. In conclusion, acTS is not a good source of macronutrients and of trace elements, while the safeness of some microorganisms in acTS is also unknown. Nevertheless, it still provides some probiotics and beneficial metabolites for human. It is thus possible to develop acTS into foods when the safety of each microorganism is proved.