Development of Improved Strategies for the Survival of Lactobacillus Plantarum MTCC 1407 in Probioticated Custard Apple Juice

• Published in: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, India. Section B: Biological sciences India. Section B: Biological sciences, 2021-03, Vol.91 (1), p.217-226
• Main Authors: Arunkumar, M., Divya, S. K., Mahesh, N., Balakumar, S.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Amoxicillin; Antibacterial activity; Antibiotics; Behavioral Sciences; Beverages; Bile; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Cholesterol; Cold storage; Cold tolerance; Culture media; Dietary supplements; Fermentation; Fruit juices; Intestine; Intolerance; Lactobacillus plantarum; Lactose; Life Sciences; Microencapsulation; Minimum inhibitory concentration; Nucleic Acid Chemistry; Plant Biochemistry; Probiotics; Research Article; Storage conditions; Strains (organisms); Survival; Vancomycin
• ISSN: 0369-8211; 2250-1746
• DOI: 10.1007/s40011-020-01196-w

Probiotics are live microorganisms that have been extensively used as food supplements to enhance the dynamic of intestinal microbial balance. Nowadays, the fruit juices are considered as suitable media for cultivating the probiotics strains for the large scale production of functional beverages. Besides, the selection of novel medium for the cultivation of healthy beverages and screening of potent probiotics strains for better tolerance ability and survival in gastrointestinal transit conditions are still challenging. Keeping this in view, the main aim of this study is to prepare probioticated custard apple juice using Lactobacillus plantarum MTCC 1407 under optimized conditions via microencapsulation. The selected probiotic strain showed remarkable antibacterial activity against Bacillus subtilis 736, Staphylococcus epidermidis MTCC 435, Klebsiella pneumoniae MTCC 7162, whereas very less bacterial growth inhibition was recorded against Escherichia coli MTCC 739 and no growth of inhibition was observed in Pseudomonas aeruginosa MTCC 2297 when compared with the positive control (amoxicillin 80 µg/mL). Besides, Lactobacillus plantarum strain exhibited lower MIC breakpoint values for several antibiotics tested except vancomycin (4 µg/ml) and also capable of reducing cholesterol level in De Man, Rogosa and Sharpe (MRS) agar medium through the assimilation of cholesterol up to 63%. Microencapsulated probiotic L. plantarum strain was inoculated into custard apple juice, and the viability of the strain was calculated during the storage conditions at 4 °C for 4 weeks. The selected probiotic strain reduced the pH from 6.4 to 5.7, within 30 days of fermentation during cold storage. During the fermentation period, the microencapsulated strain showed good tolerance ability towards acid and bile salt. The present study noticeably illustrates that the custard apple juice is proven to act as a novel medium for the production of a fermented probiotic drink. Further, it also serves as a healthy beverage for patients with lactose intolerance.