Probiotic characterization of lactic acid bacteria isolated from fermented foods and beverage of Ladakh

The present research was focused on probiotic characterization of lactic acid bacteria from fermented foods and beverage of Ladakh. Twenty five lactic acid bacteria were examined in vitro for potential probiotic properties based on their low pH tolerance, bile-salt resistance, lysozyme tolerance, cholesterol removal, hydrophobicity, autoaggragation, production of antimicrobial substances, exopolysaccharide production, β-galactosidase activity and haemolytic activity. The outcome of these studied parameters was used as input data for a principal component analysis (PCA) to select the most promising isolate and ten most potential probiotic isolates were identified through 16S rDNA sequencing. On the basis of PCA, isolate 84 (Lactobacillus plantarum KJ722784) showed similar trend to Lactobacillus casei Shirota used as reference strain in terms of probiotic properties. Fermented milk sample inoculated with L. plantarum KJ722784 exhibited decrease in viable count during storage at 4 °C on day 28. However, the survival count is greater than 7 log CFU/ml which is higher than the requirement of 6 log CFU/ml to exhibit health benefit.