Protective effects of soybean, sesame and Job’s Tears on the survival of fermented vegetable Lactobacillus plantarum under gastrointestinal tract conditions

Abstract

Soybean, sesame and Job’s Tears were evaluated for protective effect under gastrointestinal (GI) tract conditions on viability of thirteen strains of fermented vegetableLactobacillus plantarum. The addition of the cereals greatly improved the strain survival in simulated gastric juice (pH 2.0) for 180 min, especially for six sensitive strains and the protective effect depended on their compositions. All test strains were relatively resistant to simulated small intestinal juice (pH 8.0) with 0.45% bile salt for 240 min. Furthermore, the viability of L. plantarum under simulated bile juice after sequential of simulated gastric juice was also investigated. All strains were quite stable with high survival rate (>84%). These results indicate that soybean, sesame and Job’s Tears could be used as food carriers to deliver probiotic lactic acid bacteria through the GI system. Key words: Lactobacillus plantarum, cereals, soybean, sesame, Job’s Tears, gastrointestinal tract conditions