Screening of health beneficial microbes with potential probiotic characteristics from the traditional rice-based alcoholic beverage, haria

Fermented foods are natural habitats of various food-grade microorganisms which not only fortify the food material with bioactive molecules, but they could directly exert health beneficial effect to the consumers. The present study aimed to screen the microbial consortium of haria (a traditional alcoholic rice beverage), for therapeutic potentiality. Twenty-nine fermented beverage samples were collected from different areas of Bankura District (West Bengal, India).Initially, 45 dominant bacterial isolates were purified from the collected samples. From these, 3 microorganisms were screened out based on growth and acidification kinetics: these proved to be Bifidobacterium sp. (MKK4), Pediococcus lolli (MKK21), and Lactobacillus sp. (MKK37) isolates. Finally, based on a cumulative probiotic score, MKK4 (Bifidobacterium sp.) was selected for further studies. The ubiquitous presence of this strain in the collected samples was confirmed through PCR-DGGE fingerprinting. This strain was considerably stable in simulated acid and bile solutions; it also exhibited strong auto-aggregation and cell surface hydrophobicity of 82% and 53%, respectively. Under conditions of nutrient depletion, the isolate was capable to form biofilm (66.3%). The selected bacterium showed strong antimicrobial activities against Shigella dysenteriae MB14, Salmonella typhi E 1590, Micrococcus luteus ATCC 9341, Staphyloccus aureusMB13, Vibrio cholerae K510, and Escherichia coli ATCC 25922 isolates. These results suggest that the food-borne Bifidobacterium sp. MKK4 can be used as potent probiotic agent

Evaluation of some effective potentialities of newly formulated rice fermented food using Elephantopus scaber L. rhizome as herbal starter

Traditionally, fermented food and beverages are prepared by adding a mixture of plant residues as a starter or source of microbes. Most of the conventional fermented foods use a local starter which contains a mixture of herbs or old ferment or otherwise cereal dust-coated tablet. In this study, we have made an attempt to prepare a rice-based fermented food with the herbal starter (0.5% w/w) of Elephantopus scaber L. rhizome, and also examined its microbial and nutrient profiles. The food product is fortified with organic acid and titratable acidity of 0.58% and also contained an excellent source of microbes (LAB and Bifidobacterium sp.). The fermented food contains significant amount of fat, protein, minerals, vitamins, oligosaccharide, unsaturated fatty acids (ω3, ω6, ω7 and ω9) and a pool of free amino acids. The presence of phytochemical contents in the fermented rice was also exhibited significant effects against commercially available free radicals (DPPH, ABTS, FRAP and OH-radicals). Thus, food-grade microbes containing newly formulated fermented food would provide essential macro-and micro-nutrients to the individuals and convey the sustainability of good health. Therefore, the mentioned plant part would be used as an effective starter for aiding rice-based food products