Abstract
Blueberry (Vaccinium species) is an example of a fruit with high content of anti oxidative poly-phenols, and it has during the recent years been much noticed by its surprisingly potent effects against different diseases. Furthermore it can act as an antimicrobial agent in the gastro-intestine. This work looks into the effect of blueberry on the lactobacilli in the gut. Lactobacillus were isolated from feacal samples and identified to the species level.Lactobacillus were identified by subjecting to polymerase chain reaction (PCR) based randomly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) for grouping. Representative isolate were then identified to specific species level by 16s-rRNA gene (rDNA) sequencing and to identify in comparison of the sequences with the GenBank data up to specific species level. The result shows that various Lactobacillus species were found with Lactobacillus plantarum having dominating the gut of one or two of the subject throughout the experiment. Some of the initial Lactobacillus found in the gut of subjects (for exampleLactobacillus acidophilus) was during the administration period turning into L. plantarum. The changes that sometimes occur in the gut environment system also rears it head when one the voluntaries start with a growth of Lactobacillus salivarius and end up with strains of Pedicoccus pentosaceus and Bifidobacterium longum. Key words: Blueberry, polymerase chain reaction (PCR), randomly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD), bacteria, deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), Lactobacillus species,Enterobacteriaceae.
Highlights
The consumption of edible plants, fruits and vegetable has been demonstrated to prevent the occurrence of a number of diseases in humans and animals (Osman, 2006), example cancer, heart, vascular diseases and neurodegenerative diseases that all are associated with oxidative damage to lipids, proteins and nucleic acids by free radicals (Prior et al, 1998)
The result of the bacterial count (Tables 2 and 3) gave an insight into the hypothesis that the consumption of the blueberry tends to affect the number of Enterobacteriaceae with the number of Lactobacillus species
These affect the balance in the gut ecosystem thereby reducing the numbers of some harmful bacteria in the gut and giving room to some that can resist the antioxidant capacity to grow (Karakaya et al, 2001; Prior et al, 1998)
Summary
The consumption of edible plants, fruits and vegetable has been demonstrated to prevent the occurrence of a number of diseases in humans and animals (Osman, 2006), example cancer, heart, vascular diseases and neurodegenerative diseases that all are associated with oxidative damage to lipids, proteins and nucleic acids by free radicals (Prior et al, 1998). Vegetables, fruits and their seeds are rich sources of vitamins C and E, betacarotene and protease inhibitors, compounds that might protect the microorganism against free radical-induced injury and diseases (Osman, 2006).
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