THE PREBIOTIC POTENTIAL OF SOME CARBOHYDRATE SUBSTRATES ON THE GROWTH OF Lactobacillus plantarum AND Lactobacillus rhamnosus

Abstract

Probiotic intake in human nutrition is particularly important for maintaining an optimal physiological state A de Man-rogosa-Sharpe (MRS) broth medium free of fermentable carbon source and a basic MRS broth was used to investigate the ability of the Lactobacillus plantarum and Lactobacillus rhamnosus strains to grow on selected prebiotic. Criteria for the evaluation of the use of prebiotics were the growth of Lactobacillus and acidification rate as compared against the results obtained in the control media. Lactobacillus plantarum and Lactobacillus rhamnosus were monitored for 10 hours in culture media with starch, inulin, glucose and media without glucose to assess the opportunity of sugar substrates as a support for the development of probiotics for micro-encapsulation. The largest number of final CFU was obtained for inulin, followed by oligo-fructose and starch. The oligo-fructose and inulin did not reach the stationary phase after 10 hours, while the stationary phase for starch, glucose and medium without glucose was recorded at 8 hours, 6 hours and 6 hours, respectively. The development of lactic microorganisms was also observed by decreasing the pH in the culture medium during monitoring.