Journal
CANADIAN JOURNAL OF MICROBIOLOGY
Volume 58, Issue 5, Pages 581-588Publisher
CANADIAN SCIENCE PUBLISHING, NRC RESEARCH PRESS
DOI: 10.1139/W2012-026
Keywords
folate; lactic acid bacteria; lactobacilli; streptococci; vitamin fortification; fermented foods
Categories
Funding
- Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cientificas y Tecnicas (CONICET)
- Agencia Nacional de Promocion Cientifica y Tecnologica (ANPCyT)
- Consejo de Investigaciones de la Universidad Nacional de Tucuman (CIUNT)
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Folate is a B-group vitamin that cannot be synthesized by humans and must be obtained exogenously. Although some species of lactic acid bacteria (LAB) can produce folates, little is known about the production of this vitamin by yogurt starter cultures. Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilus strains were isolated from artisanal Argentinean yogurts and were grown in folate-free culture medium (FACM) and nonfat milk after which intracellular and extracellular folate production were evaluated. From the initial 92 isolated LAB strains, 4 L. delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus and 32 S. thermophilus were able to grow in the absence of folate. Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus CRL 863 and S. thermophilus CRL 415 and CRL 803 produced the highest extracellular folate levels (from 22.3 to 135 mu g/L) in FACM. In nonfat milk, these strains were able to increase the initial folate concentrations by almost 190%. This is the first report where native strains of L. delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus were shown to produce natural folate. The LAB strains identified in this study could be used in developing novel fermented products bio-enriched in natural folates that could in turn be used as an alternative to fortification with the controversial synthetic chemical folic acid.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available