Abstract
Short-chain prebiotic fructo-oligosaccharides (FOS) produced by enzymatic conversion from sucrose often contains high concentration of monosaccharides as byproducts. In addition to conventional physical/chemical purification processes, microbial treatment is an alternative method to remove these byproducts. We used Bacillus coagulans to reduce the abundance of byproducts during the enzymatic production of FOS. It is a promising probiotic because this thermophilic and spore-forming bacterium remains viable and stable during food processing and storage. B. coagulans also produces lactic acid during the carbohydrate metabolism and is used industrially to produce lactic acid for medical and food/feed applications. We aimed to establish an evaluation system to screen different strains of B. coagulans for their performance and selected B. coagulans Thorne for the treatment of crude FOS due to its high growth rate, high sporulation rate, and low nutrient requirements. B. coagulans preferentially utilized monosaccharides over other sugar components of the FOS mixture. Glucose and fructose were completely consumed during the fermentation but 85% (w/w) of the total FOS remained. At the end of the fermentation, the total viable cell count of B. coagulans Thorne was 9.9 × 108 cfu·mL−1 and the maximum endospore count was 2.42 × 104 cfu·mL−1.
Highlights
Fructo-oligosaccharides (FOS) are oligosaccharides comprising a sucrose molecule extended by a small number of fructose residues
The four strains of B. coagulans were cultivated in MRS medium with an initial glucose concentration of 20 g·L−1 to compare their growth rates
Four B. coagulans strains were characterized in terms of their biomass accumulation, sporulation capacity, and nutrient requirements
Summary
Fructo-oligosaccharides (FOS) are oligosaccharides comprising a sucrose molecule extended by a small number of fructose residues. The prebiotic activity of FOS has been established in many animal studies and clinical trials, demonstrating their beneficial effects on the immune system, resistance to infection, mineral absorption, and the maintenance of low serum lipid and cholesterol levels [1,2,3]. They inhibit pathogens by stimulating certain probiotic gastrointestinal bacteria [4,5,6]. FOS are comparable in sweetness to sucrose but are only digested to a limited degree by enzymes in the upper part of the gastrointestinal tract [7,8]
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