Effect of Alginate Concentrations on Characteristics of Lactobacillus acidophilus and Their Viability

Abstract

Lactobacillus acidophilus, a probiotic bacterium, is important bacteria for establishing a balanced intestinal microflora. The number of probiotic bacteria that must be consumed to get the benefits is about ≥107 CFU/g. Viability of L. acidophilus is generally low due to environmental conditions, storage and processing. Therefore, it is essential to maintain the number of bacteria, including the use of coating material followed by freeze drying. This microencapsulation method study aimed to determine the exact concentration of alginate in order to improve viability and attain best microcapsule characteristics by freeze drying method. A completely randomized design with 4 treatments and 4 replications was used. Alginate concentrations used were 1%, 2%, 3%, and 4% (w/v). They showed that no significantly difference on cell viability but a significant by different moisture content and yield of microcapsules. Treatment with 4% concentration was the best on generating microcapsules L. acidophilus with viability of 97.89%, water content of 3.43%, yield of 16.32%. It could also reduce resistance to pH 2.0 and bile salt 0.5% respectively 4.90 log cfu/g and 4.38%log cfu/g of total initial bacteria 4.99 log cfu/g. Keywords: alginate,  microencapsulation, Lactobacillus acidophilus, viability and characteristics.