Comparison of lactobacilli isolated from Chinese suan-tsai and koumiss for their probiotic and functional properties

• Main Authors: Chun-Feng Guo, Shuang Zhang, Ya-Hong Yuan, Tian-Li Yue, Jing-Yan Li
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier 2015-01-01
• Series: Journal of Functional Foods
• Subjects: Suan-tsai; Koumiss; Lactobacilli; Probiotic; Cholesterol removal; Antioxidative activity
• Online Access: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S175646461400382X

Suan-tsai and koumiss are traditional Chinese fermented foods. This study compared the dominant lactobacilli in suan-tsai and koumiss for their probiotic properties, cholesterol-lowering potentials and antioxidant activities. Thirty Lactobacillus strains were isolated from eight homemade suan-tsai samples (8 Lactobacillus plantarum and 6 Lactobacillus brevis) and seven homemade koumiss samples (7 Lactobacillus helveticus, 5 Lactobacillus acidophilus, 2 L. plantarum and 2 Lactobacillus casei), and they were subsequently analyzed for the above parameters. No significant differences were found between the mean antioxidant activities of the lactobacilli isolated from koumiss and suan-tsai, whereas the lactobacilli isolated from koumiss exhibited higher mean bile tolerance, adhesion to HT-29 cells, cholesterol removal and percentage of bile salt hydrolase-positive strains than did those isolated from the suan-tsai samples. Thus, koumiss could be considered a better source of potential probiotics, especially cholesterol-lowering probiotics, than suan-tsai.