Fermentation of pitaya (Hylocereus polyrhizus) juice by L. acidophilus in metabolism of sugars for cholesterol removal

Abstract

Probiotic product-based food development is now beginning to be developed, because probiotic products have some beneficial effects for human health in preventing degenerative diseases, especially for people with hypercholesterolemia. Probiotic products available on the market today are usually milk-based, and they cannot be consumed by individuals suffering from lactose intolerance or allergies because of their milk proteins. One effort to find an alternative product of probiotic beverage was then selected based ingredients of fruits or vegetables as a healthy probiotic product because of its large distribution and high nutritional value. In this study selected raw material Pitaya or dragon fruit (Hylocereus polyrhizus) as a suitable material for fermented by lactic acid bacteria while lactic acid bacteria (BAL) used was Lactobacillus acidophilus FNCC0051, and evaluated its ability to metabolize sugar glucose, sucrose, GOS and Inulin, as well as its ability to lower cholesterol in vitro. Pitaya fruit extracts were fermented at 37 °C for 24 hours and physicochemical changes, total phenolics, pH, sugar and microbial population changes were observed during the fermentation period. The number of cells reached up to 9 log CFU/mL, from an initial 6 log CFU/mL, and the pH decreased from an initial value of 4.77 to below 4.5 with the highest cholesterol decrease obtained in pitaya juice extract in metabolizing galactooligosaccharide compounds (GOS) with a decrease of 14.62 µg/mL. The pitaya fruit juice extract proved to be a suitable medium for fermented probiotic drink products and can serve as a healthy drink for vegetarians, especially hypercholesterolemia.