Evaluation of the growth of selected Lactobacilli in pseudocereal substrate

Abstract

The growth dynamics of Lactobacillus spp. in sweet water- and milk-based substrates from cooked buckwheatand amaranth flour were studied in this work. The numbers of lactobacilli were observed during fermentation in 5% CO2 atmosphere at 37 °C and storage (3 weeks at 6 °C). The earned data and estimated growth parameters showed that certain strains grew well in the milk-based gruels, even water-based amaranth gruel. This was also the case of the species under study characterized with the fastest growth. Based on the rates, only the strains of Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG and VT1 were able to grow with the values higher than 0.6 log CFU.ml-1.h-1 that can be expressed as the times to double (td) lower than 0.5 h. This was found in both the amaranth and buckwheat milk-based gruels and water-based amaranth gruels but fermented only by the probiotic GG strain. The 3-week storage tests aimed on survival of the lactobacilli at 6 °C showed minimal decrease of the counts in buckwheat gruels with the average rates of -0.084 and -0.004 log CFU.ml-1.d-1 in water- and milk-based gruels, respectively. On the other hand in amaranth gruels, the numbers of lactobacilli slightly increased with the rate of 0.02 log CFU.ml-1.d-1, on average. The results of this pilot study pointed out that the selection of suitable lactic acid bacteria should be performed for optimal fermentation of pseudo-cereal substrates. The numbers of lactobacilli at the end of fermentation were not or very slightly affected by the type of substrate at 6 °C during three weeks.