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Other from Burkina Faso

Bikalga and other roselle-seed condimentsbikalga

Bikalga is an alkaline condiment from Burkina Faso made from roselle (Hibiscus sabdariffa) seeds. The seeds are cooked for a long time with alkaline ash leachate and then ferment on their own, mainly with Bacillus bacteria. It is used as a food condiment.

Fully documentedOther

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedTraditional process with no fixed amounts in the sources read.
Roselle (Hibiscus sabdariffa) seedsFor dawadawan botso the seeds are winnowed and washed so stones sink and empty seeds float away[Ibrahim2011]
Ash leachateBikalga is cooked for a long time with alkalinizing ash leachate; dawadawan botso gets it later, when the seeds are pounded[Dini2026][Ibrahim2011]
Starterspontaneous
Start
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What changes: Starting material: roselle seeds

Step 1 of 3
Start with roselle seeds
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Bacillus

Output: roselle seeds.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

Not documented for this step.

Method

Measured measured in a studySet fixed by a specification or tested recipeReported one source reports itTypical a general value, not sourced for this fermentUnconfirmed not yet checked against a source

At a glance

Bikalga is an alkaline condiment from Burkina Faso made from roselle (Hibiscus sabdariffa) seeds. The seeds are cooked for a long time with alkaline ash leachate and then ferment on their own, mainly with Bacillus bacteria. It is used as a food condiment. Bacillus subtilis and Bacillus licheniformis do most of the fermenting.

What makes this one different

Bikalga is made from roselle seeds, not from the African locust bean seeds of soumbala. Its ash leachate goes in during the long cooking.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Dawadawan botso (north-west Nigeria)Cooked 8–12 h without ash, fermented 2 days in a closed pot, pounded with ash leachate and fermented 1 more day, then sun-dried into balls; see its own entry [Ibrahim2011].
  • Furundu (Sudan)Made from karkade (roselle) seed; its fermentation is intermediate between sigda and kawal, and it has 270 g/kg crude protein [Elfaki1991].
  • Mbuja (Cameroon)Roselle-seed condiment of Cameroon; see its own entry.

Safety

Bacillus cereus was among the bacteria isolated from bikalga [Ouoba2008]. In a study of bikalga, soumbala and ntoba mbodi, the Staphylococcus isolates (S. aureus among them) did not make enterotoxins A to D and the toxin genes screened were not found, though some carried antimicrobial resistance genes [Ouoba2019].

Hazards the sources name: Bacillus cereus (among the isolates); Staphylococcus species (S. aureus among those found in bikalga, soumbala and ntoba mbodi; toxin genes not detected).

History and sources

Every number is labelled with how it is known. How this atlas is made

History
The sources we found do not record its history.
Process times
The sources we found give no figure for how long any of its steps take.
Temperature, salt and pH
The sources we found give no temperature, salt or pH figure for any of its steps.
  1. [Dini2026] Dini I. 2026, Probiotics and Fermented Foods in Human Nutrition, Molecules 31(8):1353, doi:10.3390/molecules31081353 (section on bikalga, which summarises the 2008 bikalga studies)paper
  2. [Parkouda2009] Parkouda C., Nielsen D.S., Azokpota P., Ouoba L.I.I., Amoa-Awua W.K., Thorsen L., Hounhouigan J.D., Jensen J.S., Tano-Debrah K., Diawara B., Jakobsen M. 2009, The microbiology of alkaline-fermentation of indigenous seeds used as food condiments in Africa and Asia, Critical Reviews in Microbiology 35(2):139–156, doi:10.1080/10408410902793056 (abstract)paper
  3. [Ouoba2010] Ouoba L.I.I., Nyanga-Koumou C.A., Parkouda C., Sawadogo H., Kobawila S.C., Keleke S., Diawara B., Louembe D., Sutherland J.P. 2010, Genotypic diversity of lactic acid bacteria isolated from African traditional alkaline-fermented foods, Journal of Applied Microbiology, pp. 2019–2029, doi:10.1111/j.1365-2672.2009.04603.x (abstract)paper
  4. [Ouoba2019] Ouoba L.I.I., Vouidibio Mbozo A.B., Anyogu A., Obioha P.I., Lingani-Sawadogo H., Sutherland J.P., Jespersen L., Ghoddusi H.B. 2019, Environmental heterogeneity of Staphylococcus species from alkaline fermented foods and associated toxins and antimicrobial resistance genetic elements, International Journal of Food Microbiology 311:108356, doi:10.1016/j.ijfoodmicro.2019.108356 (abstract)paper
  5. [Ouoba2008] Ouoba L.I.I., Parkouda C., Diawara B., Scotti C., Varnam A.H. 2008, Identification of Bacillus spp. from Bikalga, fermented seeds of Hibiscus sabdariffa, Journal of Applied Microbiology 104(1):122–131, doi:10.1111/j.1365-2672.2007.03550.x (abstract)paper
  6. [Ibrahim2011] Ibrahim A.D., Sani A., Shinkafi S.A. 2011, Production, microbial and physico-chemical evaluation of dawadawan botso produced by fermentation of Hibiscus sabdariffa seeds, Int J Biol Chem Sci 5(6):2481–2490, doi:10.4314/ijbcs.v5i6.26paper
  7. [Ametefe2025] Ametefe E.N., Thorsen L., Danwonno H., Agoha R.K., Glover R.L.K., Dzogbefia V.P., Jespersen L. 2025, Molecular characterization of culturable yeasts and nonspore-forming bacteria associated with fermented kapok seeds (kantong), a traditional food condiment in Ghana, Int J Food Sci 2025:6452183paper
  8. [Elfaki1991] Elfaki A.E., Dirar H.A., Collins M.A., Harper D.B. 1991, Biochemical and microbiological investigations of sigda, a Sudanese fermented food derived from sesame oilseed cake, J Sci Food Agric 57(3):351–365, doi:10.1002/jsfa.2740570306 (abstract; also covers furundu)paper