ISSN: 0973-7510

E-ISSN: 2581-690X

Arunkumar Mani , Seetha Gunasekaran, Rajendran Sundarraj, Ramya Swaminadhan and N. Gayathri
1Department of Chemistry and Biosciences, Srinivasa Ramanujan Centre, SASTRA University, Kumbakonam – 612 001, India.
J Pure Appl Microbiol. 2012;6(2):851-858
© The Author(s). 2012
Received: 10/12/2011 | Accepted: 18/01/2012 | Published: 30/06/2012
Abstract

Probioticated carrot and watermelon juices were produced using four different strains of lactic acid bacteria [Lactobacillus plantarum MTCC1407, Lactobacillus rhamnosus MTCC1408, Lactobacillus casei MTCC1423, Lactobacillus lactis MTCC911]. The watermelon and carrot juices were pasteurized for 30 minutes at 63ºC and was inoculated with a 24h culture of individual lactobacilli and incubated at 37ºC. Changes in pH, acidity, sugar content, and viable cell count during fermentation under controlled condition were measured. All of the lactobacilli were capable of growing in watermelon and carrot juices and reached a cell density of 107 CFU/ml after 48h incubation at 37ºC. Overnight cultures of Clostridium perfringens, Escherichia coli, Salmonella typhimurium, Shigella dysenteriae and Bacillus cereus were added to probioticated juices and reduction of viable cells were assayed. The viable cell counts of the four-lacticacid bacteria in the fermented carrot and watermelon juices ranged from 107 to 109 CFU/ml and 108-109 CFU/ml respectively. Antimicrobial activities of the lactobacilli cells against the test strains were also determined by measuring the diameter of growth inhibition zones. Among all the four lactic acid bacteria Lactobacillus casei was the most potent inhibitor of all the tested intestinal pathogens such as Salmonella typhimurium, Shigella dysenteriae, Bacillus cereus, Clostridium perfringens and Escherichia coli.

Keywords

Probiotics, Lactobacilli, Watermelon, Carrot, Intestinal pathogens

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