Studies on traditional Indian (turmeric) pickle as probiotic pickle for therapeutic uses in view of COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

The aim of present study was to assess therapeutic potential of traditional turmeric pickle by characterizing the potential health boosting probiotics present in it and recommend it as an attractive food supplement. Probiotics TP1, TP2 and TP3 isolated from turmeric pickle had shown good antagonistic activity against all test pathogens i.e., Listeria monocytogenes, Bacillus cereus and Staphylococcus aureus with 100% inhibition. Most potential strain amongst them was identified as Enterococcus durans TP2 strain by 16S rRNA gene technique. Further safety assessment was confirmed by evaluating haemolytic activity, DNase and gelatinase activities and all the three probiotic isolates TP1, TP2 and TP3 had shown -ve results, thereby proving their completely safe status. The strain exhibited high tolerance to acid with minimum cell survival of 39.24% after 180 min at pH 2.0, high bile salt tolerance expressed cell survival of 93.69% after 8 h at 2.0% bile salt concentration, exhibited satisfactory auto aggregation potential after 5 h i.e., higher than 40% and reveal the strong hydrophobicity. The strain TP2 also exhibited good antioxidant activity, depletion of sodium nitrite and cholesterol reduction and was found to be susceptible to most of the antibiotics used. These observations designate that Enterococcus durans TP2 [MH916769] as a good probiotic candidate for enhancing the further therapeutic potential of well known immunity booster – Turmeric in the fermented pickle, thus recommending it as highly beneficial product for health.