Probiotic Properties of Lyophilized Cell Free Extract of Lactobacillus casei

BACKGROUND: In recent years there have been considerable interests in the use of probiotic live cells for nutritional and therapeutic purposes. This strategy can be concomitant with some limitations such as survival of live cell during the GI-transit and their effective delivery to target tissues upon ingestion. Several attempts have been made to overcome these limitations such as their microencapsulation, spray-drying and lyophilization. OBJECTIVES: In this study extract of cultured probiotics without cells was evaluated for its antimicrobial effects, antioxidant activity, and its stability. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this work the potential of lyophilized-cell-free-probiotic-extract (LPE) as a suitable alternative strategy for the preparation of probiotic-products was investigated. The main aim of this study was to find out the antibacterial and antioxidant activity of LPE and also its stability. LPE was obtained by centrifugation and subsequent lyophilization of the collected supernatant from culture media of Lactobacillus casei. An enzymatic reagent-kit was used for detection of its content of lactic acid. Antibacterial test was performed using agar cup-plat-method, the DPPH scavenging -assay was used to determine its antioxidant activity and during a storage course, LPE was under a long-term stability study. RESULTS: Results showed that, LPE had more antipathogenic effects, antioxidant activity, and stability during storage-time when compared to fresh probiotic-extract. CONCLUSIONS: Employing the LPE as a new approach, gives novel concept of probiotic-products in food and medical marketing.