Agricultural Science and Technology (Mar 2017)

Antimicrobial activity of Lactobacillus acidophilus against pathogenic and food spoilage microorganisms: A review

  • T. Dinev ,
  • G. Beev,
  • S. Denev,
  • D. Dermendzhieva ,
  • M. Tzanova ,
  • E. Valkova

DOI
https://doi.org/10.15547/ast.2017.01.001
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 9, no. 1
pp. 3 – 9

Abstract

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Abstract. The purpose of this review is to summarize the information regarding the antimicrobial activity of Lactobacillus acidophilus, an important species of lactic acid bacteria. Lactic acid bacteria are constituents of many beneficent for the consumer's health food products. They are considered potentially promising in the strategy to combat infections and prevent the growth of spoilage microorganisms, and also have antimutagenic, anticarcinogenic, hypolipidemic and hypocholesterolemic properties, improve the lactose metabolism, stimulate the immune system, etc. In the resent years Lactobacillus acidophilus is considered the main probiotic species in the intestinal tract of healthy humans and is widely used in functional dairy foods. It produces a variety of metabolic products with antimicrobial properties, including organic acids and bacteriocins, such as lactacins B and F, acidophilin, acidocin, acidophilucin, acidophilicin, which are active against many pathogenic and spoilage microorganisms - Escherichia coli (including Escherichi coli 0157:H7), Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Listeria monocytogenes, Vibrio parahaemolyticus, Vibrio cholerae, Helicobacter pylori, Klebsiella, Salmonella, Shigella, Bacillus, Clostridium, Mucor, Aspergillus, Fusarium, Trichoderma and Candida spp., etc. Because of the above mentioned reasons Lactobacillus acidophilus could be used as an alternative therapeutic agent against infections caused by susceptible microorganisms. On the other hand Lactobacillus acidophilus based antimicrobial products (mainly bacteriocins and pure cultures) could also be applied to food products to prevent the growth of spoilage microorganisms and food-borne pathogens. To better understand the mode of action and the spectrum of antifungal activity more clinical and laboratory studies of different Lactobacillus acidophilus strains are required.

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