DIVERSITY OF BACTERIAL PROBIOTICS IN TRADITIONAL FERMENTED FOODS OF WESTERN HIMALAYAS.

Diversity of 102 bacteria isolated from various fermented foods and alcoholic beverages of Western Himalayas was studied with respect to probiotic potential, and out of these, eleven isolates were selected as potential probiotics for further study. These isolates were found to be intrinsically tolerant to upper gastrointestinal transit and this property was isolate dependent. Reduction in viability (in terms of log CFU/mL) was more in simulated gastric juice of pH 2 as compared to pH 3 and 4. These isolates were investigated for surface hydrophobicity as determined by adhesion to different hydrocarbons such as n- hexadecane, xylene and toluene. Most of the isolates showed good degree of adhesion property (52.66 - 79.69%) in n-hexadecane and autoaggregation ability (51.15 - 87.69%). Conventional characterization identified these isolates as belonging to two genera viz., Enterococcus and Lactobacillus. Whereas, on the basis of 16S ribosomal gene sequence analysis, four isolates were identified as Enterococcus faecium, one as Bacillus coagulans, three each as Lactobacillus plantarum and Lactobacillus fermentum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]