Changes in Functionality of Germinated and Non-Germinated Brown Rice Fermented by Bacillus natto

Germinated brown rice (GBR) is brown rice (BR) that has been germinated. GBR accumulates more nutrients and has a softer texture than BR. The aim of this study was to ferment GBR and BR using Bacillus natto and to investigate the functionality of the fermented products compared with white rice (WR) as a control. After fermentation with B. natto, the crude ash, total essential amino acids, and fat contents of each sample increased, while the crude protein content decreased. Moreover, the γ-aminobutyric acid and γ-oryzanol contents decreased, while the 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) free radical scavenging increased significantly in all fermented samples. The nattokinase activity (FU/g) of the fermented products was highest for GBR (43.11), followed by BR (19.62), and lowest for WR (12.24). Collectively, these results indicate that GBR fermented with B. natto yields better nutritional value and functional properties than fermented BR or WR.