Utilization of in vitro gastro intestinal model to check the survivability of free and encapsulated bacteria under gastro intestinal stress conditions

Abstract

Probiotic microbes are proved to offer beneficial effects to human health by several researchers all over the world. Microbes are required to have some essential characters in order to be utilized as probiotics. One of the important characters is to resist the stress conditions of stomach (pH 2.0 and digestive enzyme pepsin) and small intestine (bile and pancreatic enzymes). To check the efficiency of microbial isolates for ability to transit stomach and small intestine in a viable state, in vitro gastro intestinal model is used. In vitro gastro intestinal model assembled in Department of Fermentation and Biosynthesis, Faculty of Food Science and Nutrition, Poznan University of Life sciences, Poznan consists of three compartments namely (i) automatic pH controller, (ii) acid and alkali dispenser, and (iii) water bath with magnetic stirrer. Eleven bacterial isolates were checked in free and encapsulated form and five of them were found to be tolerating the stress conditions of stomach and small intestine. It was also found that encapsulation protects the bacteria from stress conditions and enhances their survival.