## 3 Results and Discussion
### Changes in the Growth, pH Value, and Titractable Acidity of Germination Black Soybeans  
_Fermented with TWK10_  
In this study, TWK10 was inoculated into nongermination or germination black soy milk, and the changes in the bacterial count, pH, and tittatable acidity were measured at different time points. The results showed that there were no significant inter-group differences in the bacterial count at the initial inoculation stage (\(p>0.05\)), but the TWK10  
\begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c} \hline \hline
**Items** & **3-Day Estimated Black Soybeans** \\ \hline \hline \
\begin{tabular}{c} Sprout length (cm) \\ Germination rate (\%) \\ Water content (\%) \\ \end{tabular} &
\begin{tabular}{c} 3.87 \(\pm\) 0.48 \\ 83.84 \(\pm\) 4.07 \\ 31.56 \(\pm\) 5.51 \\ \end{tabular} \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular} The data are presented as means \(\pm\) SD (\(n=3\)).  
\end{table}
Table 1: The sprout length, germination rate, and water content of 3-day germinated black soybeans.  
bacterial count in the germination black soy milk group was significantly higher than that in the nongermination black soy milk after 12, 24, and 48 h of fermentation (\(p<0.05\); Figure 1A). This result suggested that the enzymes in the black soybeans were activated during germination, changing the nutritional composition such that the LAB could more effectively utilize the components for growth, thus increasing the bacterial count [39].  
The pH changes are shown in Figure 1B. The initial pH values of fermented-nongermination black soy milk and fermented-germination black soy milk were 6.00 and 6.30, respectively. After 12 h of incubation, the pH of the two groups were significantly reduced by 1.43 and 1.99 (\(p<0.05\)), and the pH decline stabilized after 12 h. Further measurements were made on the titratable acidity. The initial titratable acidity of fermented-nongermination black soy milk and fermented-germination black soy milk was 0.29% and 0.31%, respectively, which significantly increased to 0.81% and 0.82% after 12 h of fermentation (\(p<0.05\); Figure 1C), before subsequently stabilizing. Lactic acid is produced by _lactobacillus_ during fermentation. Therefore, the titratable acidity of nongermination black soy milk and germination black soy milk in this study increased significantly after the 12 h of fermentation, while the pH decreased significantly to 4.30-4.60 (\(p<0.05\)).  
The powder of NNGB, FNGB, NGB, and fermented-germination black soy milk (FGB) was extracted with water or ethanol and was subsequently freeze-dried to determine the recovery rate. The results showed that among nongermination black soy mills, the recovery rates of water extracts from nonfermented and fermented groups were 15.55 \(\pm\) 2.55% and 13.52 \(\pm\) 0.86%, respectively, whereas among germinated black soy milk, the recovery rates of water extracts from nonfermented and fermented groups were 22.08 \(\pm\) 3.64% and 17.02 \(\pm\) 1.00%, respectively. In addition, among nongerminated black soy mills, the recovery rates of ethanol extracts from unfermented and fermented groups were 2.78 \(\pm\) 0.83%  
Figure 1: The growth curve (**A**), pH value (**B**) and titratable acidity (**C**) of TWK10 fermented-nongermination (\(\bullet\)) or TWK10 fermented-germination (\(\circ\)) black soy milk. The data are presented as means \(\pm\) SD (\(n=3\)). \({}^{*}\) represent significantly difference (\(p<0.05\)) according to a Sample \(t\)-test.  
and 4.77 \(\pm\) 0.21%, respectively. Conversely, among germination black soy milks, the recovery rates of ethanol extracts from nonfermented and fermented groups were 4.53 \(\pm\) 0.25% and 7.70 \(\pm\) 0.21%, respectively. As seen from the above results, fermentation with TWK10 significantly increased the recovery rate of ethanol extracts for both nongermination black soy milk and germination black soy milk (data not shown).