Impact of virgin coconut oil (VCO) on probiotic Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus

Abstract

VCO is a functional food that is often consumed as an alternative in improving health. In the body there are probiotic bacteria which are normal micro flora of the intestine, an example of probiotic bacteria is L. bulgaricus. This research was aimed to see the effect of VCO on the activity of L. bulgaricus probiotic bacteria in vitro. The growth of L. bulgaricus was counting by total plate count method. Diffusion method was used to determine the antibacterial activity of L. bulgaricus metabolites against E. coli. Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC) was determined using the dilution method. VCO was meet the standards for specific gravity (0.9149), refractive index (1.4546) and water content (0%). The fatty acid component was tested using GCMS with the highest concentration, was lauric acid (17.92%). The VCO concentration used in the bacterial growth test was 1%, 5%, 10%, 15%. The best concentration of bacteria was at concentration of 1%. There was a significant difference in the number of probiotic bacteria in the concentration of 15% with negative and positive controls. The number of bacteria at the four concentrations were 150.8 x 1012, 111.4 x 1012, 109.25 x 1012, 55.667 x 1012, respectively. Antibacterial activity tested of L. bulgaricus metabolites with three concentrations (100%, 75%, 25 %) gave weak-moderate result. In the antibacterial activity test on L. bulgaricus metabolites that were not treated with VCO produced a significant difference. Testing the Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC) on L. bulgaricus metabolites that had been treated with VCO and not treated resulted in different MIC. The MIC on untreated metabolites was 4.69%, while the MIC on treated metabolites was 9.38%.