Abstract

A fermentation study of three probiotic Lactobacillus strains was conducted on individual carbohydrates including glucose (GLU) high methoxy pectin (HMP), sugar beet pectin (SBP), fructooligosaccharide (FOS), galactooligosaccharide (GOS), and inulin agave (IA) as the sole carbon sources. It was observed that Lactobacillus bulgaricus (LB), Lactobacillus casei (LC) and Lactobacillus delbruckii (LD) achieved the highest growth rates when they were grown in the presence of GLU, FOS, and IA, but LB had a slower growth rate in these substrates compared to LC and LD. Only LC had a statistically significantly higher growth rate in GOS than in the basal medium which contained no carbohydrate source. Exposure to bile caused a significant reduction of log colony forming units/ml of all 3 strains, with LD grown in HMP exhibiting the highest survival followed by LC and LD grown in GLU, and LD grown on IA. Although HMP was not fermented by the test organisms, results indicate that HMP may in fact help certain probiotic bacteria to survive exposure to bile. Exposure to simulated gastric juices indicated that the studied Lactobacilli are tolerant to simulated gastric juice.

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