The increased demand for Lactobacillus bacteria in industry and the developing probiotic sector prompts a quest for cost-effective prebiotics and fermentation medium that provide a high yield and quality of these bacteria. The mean doubling time of Lactobacilli identified the optimum concentration of honey and inulin as 0.5% and 5%, respectively. The effect of pH (2.5) on honey and inulin-supplemented lactic acid bacteria was observed to show an absorbance (620 nm) of 0.54 and 0.62, respectively, as compared to the control of 0.49 at 4 h. The prebiotic-supplemented Lactobacillus strains were able to exhibit higher growth in presence of 0.4% bile salts, and 15% NaCl, and higher cell surface hydrophobicity as compared to Lactobacillus without supplementation of prebiotics. The effect of prebiotics on Lactobacillus strains in skimmed milk exhibited 2.31 times more growth, after 5 weeks of refrigerated storage. Kirby–Bauer assay confirmed the enhanced anti-methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus activity of Lactobacillus strains in prebiotic-supplemented skimmed milk. The study concluded that honey supplemented in skimmed milk can serve as potential growth and anti-MRSA enhancer for Lactobacillus plantarum, Lactobacillus acidophilus, and Lactobacillus casei var. rhamnosus.
Key words: anti-MRSA activity, cell surface hydrophobicity, doubling time, prebiotics
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