Shochu slop is an excellent medium for Escherichia coli K-12

We found that shochu slop, the residue generated during the production of distilled shochu liquor, which must be treated as industrial waste, can be used as an excellent medium for Escherichia coli culture. LB medium is generally used in laboratories for culturing E. coli. However, it is not the optimal medium for E. coli culture because the bacterial cells cannot grow to very high densities in LB medium. On the other hand, E. coli can grow to higher densities in Terrific broth and this medium is used when researchers want to grow E. coli to high density or to obtain a protein with high yield. In this study, we removed solid matter from shochu slop, adjusted the pH of the mixture to 7 and subsequently used the slop for E. coli culture. The ability of shochu slop to support E. coli growth was compared with those of LB Miller medium and Terrific broth. The results indicate that sweet potato shochu slop as culture medium for E. coli is comparable to Terrific broth and much better than LB Miller medium in terms of supporting cell proliferation, and plasmid and enzyme production.