Characterization of potential probiotic bacteria from ‘panchamirtham’; A Southern Indian ethinic fermented fruit mix

Abstract

Panchamirtham is a fermented fruit mix made from natural fermentation of fruits (banana, brown sugar, seedless dates, sugar candy, honey, cardamom and ghee), which offers multiple health benefits to human. Research on fermented foods for probiotic microorganisms remains scarce compared to other dairy products. Hence, this present study was aimed to characterise the cultivable bacteria associated with panchamirtham and to identify potential probiotic bacteria. In total, one hundred and three bacterial cultures were isolated from different growth media from three different panchamirtham samples. Molecular characterization of 103 bacterial isolates revealed that these isolates were fell into Bacillus sp., Enterobacter sp., Acinetobacter sp., Panteoa sp., Microbacterium sp., Klebsiella sp., Sphingomonas sp., Ornithinibacillus sp., Myroides sp., Kocuria sp., Alcaligens sp., and Brevundimonas sp. Seventeen isolates exhibited antimicrobial activity against human pathogens viz., Listeria monocytogens, Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Also these bacterial isolates exhibited pH, bile salt tolerance, produced biofilm, exopolysaccharide and exhibited no haemolytic activity. In cytotoxicity assay Bacillus valezensis M4S1B1 and Proteus terrae M7S2B1 killed A549 human lung cancer cells. Our results demonstrated that E. xiangfangensis M5S2B6, B. safensis M5S2B8, E. hormaechi subsp. oharae M6S1B2, B. valezensis M4S1B1 and P. terrae M7S2B1 displayed essential characteristics of potential probiotics and may be used as starter culture to produce quality panchamirtham.