## 3 Results and Discussion
#### 3.2.1 OR, SP Carbohydrates, and Organic Acids Contents  
The OR and SP carbohydrates and organic acids amounts are displayed in Table 3. The glucose content of SP increased in the first 8 h of fermentation due to the starch degradation and conversion into glucose but decreased afterwards. There are two possible processes that could influence the glucose decrement. Firstly, glucose consumption during _Lp_ cellular development and secondly, glucose conversion into lactic acid through via Embden-Meyerhof-Parnas pathway (EMP). On the other side, acetic acid increased during SP fermentation, probably due to the degradation of pentose and gluconate through via the pentose phosphate (PP) pathway [30; 31] With respect to SP maltose content, the amount decreased after 24 h of fermentation, as reported in Table 3, reaching a final value of 1.05 mg/g f.w. after 24 h of fermentation. On the other side, SP fructose content decreased from 4.1 mg/g f.w. to 2.69 mg/g f.w. after 24 h of fermentation. This could be due to the use of fructose by _Lp_ as alternative external electron acceptor and its conversion into mannitol by mannitol dehydrogenase [65]. The SP content of lactic and acetic acids after 24 h of fermentation had a total value of 8.5 mg/g f.w. and 1.40 mg/g f.w., respectively, and the _Lp_ growth during 24 h of fermentation reached a final value of log 6.7 cfu/g [38], thus emphasizing a good adaptability of the strain in the quinoa sourdough. The SP ratio between lactic and acetic acid, named FQ (fermentation quotient) was 6.07, indicating a good ratio between the two organic acids. With respect to OR fermentation, the FQ values was 1.27. This is in line with [PERSON] et al. [66] who reported a FQ fermentation of 6.1 at quinoa flour fermented with _Lactobacillus plantarum_ 1A7 strain. \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c} \hline
**Parameters** & **QWF** \\ \hline Minerals, mg/100 g f.w. & \\ \hline Calcium (Ca) & 18.09 \(\pm\) 0.30 \\ Magnesium (Mg) & 303.43 \(\pm\) 0.17 \\ Potassium (K) & 813.92 \(\pm\) 0.11 \\ Iron (Fe) & 3.02 \(\pm\) 0.20 \\ Copper (Cu) & 0.96 \(\pm\) 0.03 \\ Zinc (Zn) & 1.82 \(\pm\) 0.02 \\ Manganese (Mn) & 2.50 \(\pm\) 0.01 \\ Chromium (Cr) & n.d. \\ \hline \end{tabular} Values of three different determinations followed by standard deviation; f.w.: fresh weight. QWF: quinoa wholemeal flour; n.d.: not detected.  
\end{table} 
Table 2: Chemical composition and mineral content of quinoa flour. In the case of spontaneous sourdough, in the first 8 h of fermentation the carbohydrates conversion was almost similar to SP. After 8 h of spontaneous fermentation, the carbohydrates conversion lags behind, probably due to the low capacity of wild microbiota to multiply and to produce organic acids. This behavior is reflected by the FQ values compared to the same values for SP and indicate low amounts of lactic and acetic acids. With respect to the citric acid amount, after 24 h of fermentation the SP's citric acid content decreased, but there was no significant difference between OR and SP (\(p<0.05\)), as displayed in Table 3. The decrease of citric acid amount could be explained by the ability of \(Lp\) strain to use citric acid as an energy supply [45]. However, the \(Lp\) preference for energy source is reflected mainly in the use of fructose, decreasing its amount in SP sample from 4.36 to 1.69 mg/g f.w. [PERSON] et al. [67] reported that in a raw matrix that contains glucose and fructose, the heteroformative LABs will mainly use glucose as an energy source to grow and fructose as an electron acceptor. This is in line with [29] who proved that the same strain of _Lactobacillus plantarum_ ATCC 8014 was able to growth in different MRS media supplemented with concentrations of glucose, fructose, sucrose, and maltose, and consumed all types of carbohydrates, although glucose being the easiest fermentable sugar for this strain.