Growth, organic acids profile and sugar metabolism of Bifidobacterium lactis in co-culture with Streptococcus thermophilus: The inulin effect

By Ricardo P. S. Oliveira, P. Perego, Maricê Nogueira de Oliveira, A. Converti. 2012

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Abstract The organic acids profile, sugar metabolism and biomass growth of Streptococcus thermophilus (St) and Bifidobacterium lactis (Bl) have been studied in pure cultures or binary co-culture (St–Bl) in skim milk either containing 40 mg/g of inulin or not. With inulin, the time required by St, Bl and St–Bl to complete fermentation (i.e., when the pH reached 4.5) was about 14, 8 and 49% shorter than without inulin, respectively. This prebiotic also enhanced the levels of lactic and acetic acids and volatile compounds, showing a positive synbiotic effect between pre- and probiotics. In particular, the St–Bl co-culture showed final concentrations of both microorganisms about 15 and 38% higher than in their respective pure cultures, thus highlighting a clear synergistic effect between these microorganisms due to mutual interactions. In addition, the well-known bifidogenic effect of inulin was confirmed.

Subfields: Food Science, Molecular Biology, Nutrition and Dietetics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/f78305703dc1b93a3d53663621ed5fd55a4c797b