Abstract:Wolfberry (Lycium barbarum) is a traditional Chinese medicinal and edible plant. It contains a variety of functional ingredients and has various functional activities such as anti-aging, immune regulation and anti-atherosclerosis. Hubei hybrid wolfberry is a researcher who induced and doubled Ningxia wolfberry, and then crossed it with the local wild wolfberry in Hubei, and was later introduced to Jianshi County, Enshi Prefecture. It has become one of the important industries in the local poverty alleviation. Compared with Ningxia wolfberry, Hubei hybrid wolfberry has a higher moisture content. The previous study found that it is not suitable for processing into traditional dried wolfberry products. It is urgent to develop new processed wolfberry products to improve the conversion rate of Hubei hybrid wolfberry and the economic benefits of the industry. Using lactic acid bacteria to ferment characteristic fruits can not only give the product a unique flavor, but also transform or increase the types and content of active substances in it, and improve the nutritional value and health benefits of the product. However, there are few reports on the effects of different lactic acid bacteria fermentation on the nutritional quality of wolfberry juice. Therefore, this study used Hubei hybrid wolfberry as raw material and used 6 kinds of lactic acid bacteria (Lactobacillus plantarum, Streptococcus thermophilus, Lactobacillus acidophilus, Lactobacillus rhamnosus, Lactobacillus casei and Lactobacillus fermentum) for fermentation. The physicochemical properties, main active components and antioxidant activity in vitro of wolfberry juice before and after fermentation were studied. And establish a method to comprehensively evaluate the quality of fermented wolfberry juice using principal component analysis, in order to select the most suitable lactic acid bacteria strain for wolfberry juice fermentation. The results showed that the 6 kinds of lactic acid bacteria could grow well in wolfberry juice, which the viable count can reach above 10.0 Lg CFU/mL. After fermentation, the total sugar and reducing sugar content in the juice is significantly reduced (P <0.05). Lactobacillus plantarum and Streptococcus thermophilus has better acid production capacity, and the total acid content had 6.74 g/kg and 6.07 g/kg. Compared with unfermented wolfberry juice, the total phenol content in wolfberry juice fermented by Lactobacillus plantarum, Streptococcus thermophilus, Lactobacillus rhamnosus and Lactobacillus fermentum increased by 13.76% to 28.07%, while there was no significant difference in the content of total phenols in goji juice fermented by Lactobacillus acidophilus and Lactobacillus casei (P>0.05). And the total flavonoids content increased by 55.80% to 161.97% after fermentation. The antioxidant activities of fermented wolfberry juice were also significantly improved (P<0.05). Correlation analysis results show that the increase in antioxidant activity is significantly related to the content of total phenols and total flavonoids. Based on principal component analysis, three principal components were extracted, covering three levels of fermentability, nutritional quality, and functionality. They comprehensively reflect the quality of fermented wolfberry juice. The cumulative variance contribution rate is 82.344%. The comprehensive score ranking shows that the quality of wolfberry juice fermented by Lactobacillus plantarum and Lactobacillus fermentum is better, and they are suitable as a starter for developing high-value green processed beverages of wolfberry.