Screening of Lactic Acid Bacteria of Different Origin for their Probiotic Potential

This study was to isolate lactic acid bacteria (LAB) from different dairy and non-dairy sources and to evaluate the probiotic potential of the isolated microorganism(s). Sixteen Lactobacillus isolates viz. seven human (LHI), six dairy (LMI) and three from kimchi (LKI) were subjected to screening for probiotic attributes: simulated stomach deudenum passage, bile salt hydrolase; cell surface hydrophobicity, adhesion, auto-aggregation, antimicrobial activity, antibiotic susceptibility and antioxidative potential, following standard protocols. The isolates exhibited resistance to stomach pH (pH=3.0) and tolerance against gastric juice and bile. The isolates also displayed antimicrobial activity against Escherichia coli, Klebsiella sp., S. typhimurium and were uniformly sensitive towards amikacin, amoxycillin, ampicillin, chloramphenicol, clindamycin, erythromycin, oxytetracyclin and cefuroxime. Highest hydrophobicity of up to 86 and 44% against both n-hexadecane and xylene were recorded with LHI7 followed by LHI6. Moreover, LMI5 and LKI2 showed high anti-oxidative and auto-aggregation properties, respectively. Bacterial adherence increased with a decrease in pH with highest affinity for Caco-2 cells in LHI7, showing 68.7 ± 0.53% adhesion, followed by LHI6 with 65.4 ± 0.15%. Overall, these selective strains may possibly be utilized as probiotics after further validation through in vivo studies and/ or human clinical trials. Screening of Lactic Acid Bacteria of Different Origin for their Probiotic Potential