Antimicrobial activity of quality brands Spanish honeys

80-90% of patients with head and neck cancer who receives radiation and/or chemotherapy have oral mucositis. Oral mucositis is a complex process involving oxidative damage of oral mucosal, inflammation, mucosal colonization by pathogenic microorganisms and direct damage to DNA. The development of oral mucositis led to the interruption of the treatments, periods of hospitalization, dysphagia with malnutrition in patients and increased healthcare costs in treatments which have isolated mechanisms of action and are not fully satisfactory. As honey has antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial and healing properties, it can be used effectively in the prevention and treatment of oral mucositis by acting simultaneously on different pathophysiological mechanisms. The aim of this study was to evaluate the antimicrobial activity of honeys from different floral sources and to evaluate the possible differences that may happen in such capacity between similar honeys of different years of production. We selected six types of Spanish honey from quality brands avocado honey (Persea sp.) and chestnut honey (Castanea sp.) from DOP Miel de Granada; lavender honey (Lavandula sp.) and rosemary honey (Rosmarinus officinalis) from DOP Miel de La Alcarria; blackberry honey (Rubus sp.) and eucalyptus honey (Eucalyptus sp) from PGI Miel de Galicia and two organic honey, thyme honey (Thymus sp.) and heather honey (Erica sp.), collected during two consecutive harvests (2010 and 2011). We studied antimicrobial activity against microorganisms isolated from oropharyngeal mucosa of patients who suffer oral mucositis, Gram-positive (Staphylococcus aureus and Streptococcus pyogenes) and Gram-negative bacteria (Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Escherichia coli) and yeasts (Candida albicans and Candida glabrata). These assays gave us accurate information about what would be expected from the application of honey in those patients. Antimicrobial test were carried out according to Silva et al. (2012) using Nutrient Broth or Brain Heart Infusion to bacterias or Yeasts Peptone Dextrose to yeasts on microplates (96 wells). Honey was diluted in water and transferred into the first well. Serial dilutions were performed. 20 μl of a solution of 1% TTC was used for detect antimicrobial activity Candida albicans and Candida glabrata showed higher resistance and their growth was not inhibited at the honey concentrations used. Further studies using higher concentrations of honey are required. Among bacteria all the tested honeys were able to inhibit their growth but showed different antimicrobial activity depending on the microorganism tested. Minimum inhibitory concentration ranged from 3.9 to 250 mg/ml. Generally gram-negative bacteria were less resistant, something that can be explained by the variability that exists in the resistance in bacterial strains within a specie. Differences were also observed in the antimicrobial activity of similar honeys from different years of production. Being a natural product, honey’s composition is in a constant state of change, depending on factors such as climatology which affect plant species available

Actividad antimicrobiana de mieles españolas acogidas a marcas de calidad

El objetivo del estudio fue valorar la capacidad antimicrobiana frente a diferentes cepas de referencia (Staphylococcus aureus subsp. aureus, Streptococcus pyogenes, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa y Candida albicans), de mieles de diferentes orígenes florales y geográficos y valorar las posibles diferencias en dicha capacidad entre mieles similares de diferentes cosechas. Se seleccionaron seis mieles españolas acogidas a marcas de calidad, así como dos mieles ecológicas recogidas durante dos cosechas consecutivas. Los tests antimicrobianos fueron llevados a cabo en microplacas de 96 pocillos utilizando caldo nutritivo o medio BHI para las bacterias y medio YPD para la levadura. El inóculo fue añadido a todas los pocillos y las microplacas fueron incubadas a 37ºC durante 24 horas en el caso de las bacterias y a 25ºC durante 48 horas en el caso de las levaduras. La actividad antimicrobiana fue detectada adicionando 20 Al de una solución de TTC (cloruro de 2,3,5- trifeniltetrazoilo) al 1%. La concentración mínima inhibitoria (CMI) fue definida como la concentración de miel más baja capaz de inhibir el crecimiento microbiano. Según los resultados observados podemos concluir que las mieles estudiadas presentan principalmente actividad antibacteriana a unas CMI en torno al 20%

CLA-producing adjunct cultures improve the nutritional value of sheep cheese fat

peer-reviewedThe influence of the autochthonous CLA-producing Lactobacillus plantarum TAUL 1588 and Lactobacillus casei subsp. casei SS 1644 strains and the ripening time on the fatty acid (FA) content and sensory characteristics of sheep cheese were investigated. Three cheese types with different cultures and the control cheese were produced in duplicate and ripened for 8 months. 86 individual FA were determined by gas chromatography. Ripening time (2, 90, 180 and 240 days) did not have a significant effect (P > .05) on the FA content. However, the presence of both Lactobacillus CLA-producing strains led to a decrease of the saturated FA content and to 1.30, 1.19 and 1.27 times higher levels of vaccenic acid, CLA and omega-3, respectively, when compared to the control cheese. This combination allowed obtaining sheep milk cheeses with a healthier FA content, without appreciable changes on sensory characteristics. This work could be a promising approach to increase the bioactive fatty acid content of cheeses

Lactic Acid Bacteria and Bifidobacteria with Potential to Design Natural Biofunctional Health-Promoting Dairy Foods

peer-reviewedConsumer interest in healthy lifestyle and health-promoting natural products is a major driving force for the increasing global demand of biofunctional dairy foods. A number of commercial sources sell synthetic formulations of bioactive substances for use as dietary supplements. However, the bioactive-enrichment of health-oriented foods by naturally occurring microorganisms during dairy fermentation is in increased demand. While participating in milk fermentation, lactic acid bacteria can be exploited in situ as microbial sources for naturally enriching dairy products with a broad range of bioactive components that may cover different health aspects. Several of these bioactive metabolites are industrially and economically important, as they are claimed to exert diverse health-promoting activities on the consumer, such as anti-hypertensive, anti-inflammatory, and anti-diabetic, anti-oxidative, immune-modulatory, anti-cholesterolemic, or microbiome modulation. This review aims at discussing the potential of these health-supporting bacteria as starter or adjunct cultures for the elaboration of dairy foods with a broad spectrum of new functional properties and added value.This work was funded by the JPI Food Processing for Health funded by the LONGLIFE Project and the APC Microbiome Institute, a Centre for Science and Technology (CSET) funded by the Science Foundation Ireland (SFI), through the Irish Government’s National Development Plan. The authors are grateful to the University of León (León, Spain) for granting a Ph.D. fellowship to ER

Estudio microbiológico de mieles españolas acogidas a marcas de calidad

Actualmente la legislación europea no incluye especificaciones sobre higiene o conta-minación microbiana de la miel y la mayoría de los estudios microbiológicos se centran en la detección de Clostridium botulinum. Teniendo en cuenta que existen numerosas fuentes de con-taminación de la miel, desde los granos de polen, pasando por el intestino de las abejas, hasta los manipuladores, resulta importante evaluar su calidad higiénica y seguridad microbiológica.Se seleccionaron seis tipos de miel de diferentes orígenes florales y geográficos acogidas a marcas de calidad y dos muestras de miel ecológica durante dos cosechas consecutivas 2010 y 2011. En total fueron analizadas 15 muestras de miel. 10 g de cada una de las muestras fueron pesados asépticamente y homogeneizados en 90 mL de agua peptonada estéril (dilución 10-1) en un homogeneizado haciendo diluciones seriadas con el mismo diluente. Se realizaron recuentos de microorganismos aerobios mesófilos en PCA (30ºC, 48 h); mohos y levaduras siguiendo el proto-colo de ISO 21527-2:2008; Staphylococcus aureus en Baird-Parker agar con yema de huevo, telurito y una solución de sulfadimidina (37ºC, 24 h); esporas de clostridios sulfito reductores para lo cual se tomaron alícuotas de 10, 5, 1 y 0,1 mL de la suspension inicial, se trataron térmicamente en tubos de ensayo a 80ºC durante 5 minutos y se cubrieron con agar SPS (37ºC,5 días); coliformes totales y Escherichia coli mediante el uso de la técnica del número más probable según el método oficial de la AOAC 2005.03 y detección de Salmonella sp. según el método Oficial AOAC 989.13. Las determinaciones fueron realizadas por triplicadoOcho de las muestras estudiadas no llegaron al límite de detección para microrganismos aerobios mesófilos y para aquellas en las que se observó crecimiento microbiano, los recuentos fueron bajos, oscilarando entre 13,35± 5,8 y 339,4 ± 67,0. En el caso de mohos y levaduras ninguna de las muestras llegó al límite de detección. Los bajos recuentos observados son indicativos de un adecuado manejo apícola y unas buenas prácticas de extracción y procesado de la miel. En ningu-na de las muestras se llegó al límite de detección para Staphylococcus aureus y fueron negativas para clostridios sulfito reductores y Salmonella spp. Los recuentos estimados para coliformes totales oscilaron entre 33,3 ± 23,1 y 140 ± 20 ufc /g sin llegar a encontrar E.coli en ninguna de ellas con lo que los coliformes detectados en las muestras de miel se pueden asociar a especies cuyo origen en la miel es ambiental.En base a los resultados obtenidos podemos concluir que todas las muestras estudiadas fueron manipuladas bajo óptimas condiciones higiénicas y resultan microbiológicamente seguras para el consumidor.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Evaluation of honey cell-induced effects on bacteria

Although there exist numerous studies to establish antimicrobial activity of different types of honey, few studies describe the mechanism of their antimicrobial action. Flow cytometry is an analytical method which allows to characterize cell populations at single cell level.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Bacteriostatic and bactericidal activity of diferente Spanish honey

The aim of this study is to determine the antimicrobial capacity of Spanish honey from diferente floral and geographical origins in order lo select one which shows higher antimicrobial activity to be used in the prevention and trealment of oral mucositis derived from treatments of radio and/or chemotherapy.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Biocheese: A Food Probiotic Carrier

This review describes some aspects related to the technological barriers encountered in the development and stability of probiotic cheeses. Aspects concerning the viability of probiotic cultures in this matrix are discussed and the potential of cheese as a biofunctional food carrier is analyzed, outlying some points related to health and safety. In general, the manufacture of probiotic cheese should have little change when compared with the elaboration of cheese in the traditional way. The physicochemical and technological parameters influencing the quality of these products have also to be measured so as to obtain a process optimization

Production of sheep milk cheese with high γ-aminobutyric acid and ornithine concentration and with reduced biogenic amines level using autochthonous lactic acid bacteria strains

Consumer demand for health-promoting foods is generating the need to develop biofunctional dairy products. Lactic acid bacteria are employed in cheese-making and some of them are able to produce beneficial compounds on human health such as γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) and ornithine but also to synthetize biogenic amines. The aim was to investigate the effect of four selected autochthonous co-cultures on the free amino acid profile, with special emphasis on GABA and ornithine, and on the biogenic amine content of pasteurized sheep milk cheese during ripening. High average concentrations of GABA (1296.75 mg/kg cheese) and ornithine (2355.76 mg/kg cheese) were found in all the cheese batches at 240 days of ripening. Batch 2, manufactured with the co-culture containing autochthonous Lactococcus lactis strains as starter and Lactobacillus plantarum TAUL1588 as adjunct, showed 2.37 fold reduced biogenic amines concentration with respect to the batch 1 made with the starter during the ripening time. The microstructure and microbiological counts of cheeses were affected (P ≤ 0.001) by the ripening time, without appreciating differences (P ≥ 0.05) in the physico-chemical composition between batches. This study could be a good approach to the development of functional sheep milk cheese.Peer reviewe

Identification of Enterococci isolated from cow's milk cheese: comparison of the classical methods and the API 20 strep system

A comparison of the results obtained using the classical methods with those of the API 20 Strep system was carried out in identifying 24 enterococci strains isolated from San Simón cow's milk cheese, a traditional Spanish variety. The results of both identification systems coincided exactly in 9 strains (37.5% of the strains studied). In one strain the results obtained using the classical methods did not coincide with those using the API 20 Strep method. 3 strains (12.5%) could not be identified using the API 20 Strep system. However, 11 strains (45%), that remained doubtful between both species E. faecalis and E. faecium on the basis of the classical methods, were identified using the API 20 Strep system. The API 20 Strep system does not include some biochemical tests of importance in identifying of foodborne enterococci and could not identify the atypical strains of Enterococcus. Moreover, this system is adapted to the identification of enterococci of clinical origin and their database does not include some species common in foods. However, it could have an application in combination with the classical methods in order to carry out a reasonably rapid and reliable identification of enterococci related to cheese