Abstract
Morphologically different 18 strains were isolated and examined for their abilities to inhibit ACE. Those strains were cultured in the medium containing 10% of soybean extract at 37$^{\circ}C$ for 48hr or fermented with boiled soybean at 3$0^{\circ}C$ for 60 days. The concentration of inhibitors to inhibit 50% of ACE activity, $IC_{50}$ was measured on the culture broth of each strain and also on the hot-water extract from 20, 40 and 60 day fermented Doenjang by each strain. As a result, SCB-3 which is isolated from Meju showed the highest ACE inhibitoryactivity on the cultured broth and 40 day matured Doenjang. Then, $IC_{50}$ of SCB-3 was 0.02 mg/ml and 0.26mg/ml respectively. SCB-3 was identified as a Bacillus subtilis based upon its morphological, biochemical and physiological properties. Changes in general components and ACE inhibitory activity of Doenjang fermented by SCB-3 were examined during 90 days. Total acidity of Doenjang was increased from 1.39% to 1.66% and pH was decreased from 6.02 to 5.79 after 90 days fermentation. Total sugar contents were decreased from 16.4% to 15.1% and reducing sugar contents was also decreased from 2.45% to 1.62%. Total nitrogen contents were nearly not changed, but amino nitrogen contents were drastically increased from 196mg% to 541mg%. The numbers of total microorganism were increased to 1.1$\times$$10^{8}$ cells/g after 45 days. Protease activity was increased to 622.1U/g after 75 days. The highest ACE inhibitory activity was shown in 60 day fermented Doenjang and $IC_{50}$ of the hot-water extract was 0.31mg/ml.