Isolation and characterization of Lactobacillus strains from kimchi for development of probiotics

Abstract

Probiotics are the live microorganisms, when they are used with the adequate amounts, probiotics
bring health benefit for the host animals. Now probiotics are accepted as the suitable alternatives to
antibiotics in the control of bacteria infection and improving the animal production. The objective of
this study aimed at isolating, identifying, and characterizing some Lactobacillus strains from kimchi
for developing the potential probiotics. The effects of sugar content, time and nutrient supplementing
for fermentation performance were also investigated. Eight colonies including L. acidophilus, L. case,
L. delbrueckii and L. plantarum were isolated, identified by using 16S rRNA gene sequences and a
preliminary screening for acid tolerance, eight of the best isolates were selected. They were able to
tolerate pH=2 for 2 hours, produced acid lactic for pH<4. Lactobacillus species could grow well in 5
days with 3% of molasses and 0.19% of molasses supplementation with rice bran.