Screening of isolated potential probiotic lactic acid bacteria from Sichuan pickle for cholesterol lowering property and triglycerides lowering activity

Abstract

The aim of this study was to isolate lactic acid bacteria (LAB) from Sichuan pickle and to assess their probiotic potential. Total of 66 LAB were isolated from 2 types of Sichuan pickle based on their morphological, physiological, biochemical, and genotypic characteristics. Then, 6 strains (BH6, BH9, BH18, BH46, BH48, BH59) were selected as candidates for further studies. The in vitro experiment showed that the cholesterol degradation rate of 4 strains BH6, BH9, BH59 exceeded 60%. And the triglyceride degradation rate of 3 strains BH6, BH9, BH18 was more than 17%. Out of 6 tested LAB strains, most of them (BH6, BH9, BH18, BH48, BH59) exhibited moderate to high survivability (59%-90%) under high concentration of bile salt (3%) and their survival rate was 72%-95% (BH6,BH18,BH46,BH48,BH59) at low pH conditions. The in vitro experiment showed that all LAB strains inhibited the growth of tested pathogenic microorganisms. Based on the results of presently in vitro experiments, it was concluded that the BH6 isolate had better cholesterol lowering ability (65.36%), triglyceride degradation ability (18.97%), bile salt tolerance and bacteriostatic ability. The potential LAB strain, BH6 was identified as Lactobacillus plantarum by 16S rRNA sequencing. In conclusion, the strain BH6 screened from Sichuan pickle had good ability to degrade cholesterol and triglyceride; and it had better tolerance to acid and bile salt; which also had good bacteriostatic ability. Therefor the strain BH6 has the potential to be used as edible probiotics.