Microbial analyses of fermented milk products require selective methods to discriminate between close species simultaneously present in high amounts. A culture-based method combining novel chromogenic agar media and appropriate incubation conditions was developed to enumerate lactic acid bacteria (LAB) strains in fermented milk. M1 agar, containing two chromogenic substrates, allowed selective ...

This study identified the odor-active compounds and the qualitative characteristics of doughs from "ancient" grains flours fermented by lactic acid bacteria. For this purpose doughs made with quinoa and Kamut® flours have been produced and inoculated with strains belonging to the species Lactobacillus paracasei, Lactobacillus plantarum and Lactobacillus brevis and compared with fermented doughs...

Hydrophilic and electrostatic cell surface properties of eight Lactobacillus strains were characterized by using the microbial adhesion to solvents method and microelectrophoresis, respectively. All strains appeared relatively hydrophilic. The strong microbial adhesion to chloroform, an acidic solvent, in comparison with microbial adhesion to hexadecane, an apolar n-alkane, demonstrated the par...

BACKGROUND The possibility of using microbes to maintain health, and to prevent or treat disease is a topic as old as microbiology. The research of novel probiotic strains is important in order to satisfy the increasing request of the market and to obtain functional products in which the probiotic cultures are more active and with better probiotic characteristics than those already present on t...

A.C. Freitas 7 A.E. Pintado 7 M.E. Pintado 7 F.X. Malcata (Y) Escola Superior de Biotecnologia, Universidade Católica Portuguesa, Rua Dr. António Bernardino de Almeida, P-4200-072 Porto, Portugal Abstract Four species of bacteria (Enterococcus faecium and Enterococcus faecalis, Lactobacillus plantarum and Lactobacillus paracasei) and three species of yeasts (Debaryomyces hansenii, Yarrowia lipo...

A total of 34 lactic acid bacteria isolates from 4 different Brazilian kefir grains were identified and characterized among a group of 150 isolates, using the ability to tolerate acidic pH and resistance to bile salts as restrictive criteria for probiotic potential. All isolates were identified by amplified ribosomal DNA restriction analysis and 16S rDNA sequencing of representative amplicons. ...

Exendin-4, a glucagon-like protein-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonist, is an excellent therapeutic peptide drug for type 2 diabetes due to longer lasting biological activity compared to GLP-1. This study explored the feasibility of using probiotic Lactobacillus paracasei as an oral vector for recombinant exendin-4 peptide delivery, an alternative to costly chemical synthesis and inconvenient administra...

INTRODUCTION Food supplemented with probiotic bacteria is a rapidly growing sector of the market. The aim of the present study was to evaluate and compare the acid production of selected probiotic strains available in commercial products. METHODS Six Lactobacillus strains (Lactobacillus plantarum 299v and 931; Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG and LB21; Lactobacillus paracasei subsp. paracasei F19, ...

Probiotics could represent an effective alternative to the use of synthetic substances in nutrition and medicine. The data concerning the efficacy of probiotics are often contradictory. This paper focuses on the enhancement of the efficacy of probiotics by their combination with synergistically acting components of natural origin. Maltodextrins can be obtained by enzymatic hydrolysis of starch ...