THE ROLE OF LACTOBACILLUS PLANTARUM IN FERMENTATION PROCESS
AND AS AN ADJUNCT CULTURE IN MILK AND MILK PRODUCTS
Alifia N Fadila – 2001541831
Department of Food Technology LB 46
I. Introduction
Milk is a living food that has loads of nutritional and biological properties. There are
lots of varieties of milk that could be consumed by human, for example cow milk, goat
milk, sheep milk and other grass-fed domesticated ruminants (Aspri et al., 2015; Bailone
et al. 2017; Claeys et al., 2014). Milk is known to has natural bioactive such as
antioxidant activities due to the compounds that are inside it such as lactoferrin, casein,
vitamins, and even some flavonoids. Caseins in milk (α casein, β casein, and k casein)
and lactoferrin are known to have the ability to inhibit lipid peroxidation. Vitamins in
milk such as vitamin E and vitamin C are able to act as radical scavengers. Some
flavonoids in milk could act as antioxidants that have role in radical scavenging and metal
ion binding (Marya et al., 2017). In order to extend milk shelf-life, nowadays people
considered to ferment milk. Fermented milk is milk that has undergone an acidification
reaction caused by lactic acid bacteria (LAB). Fermented milk is known to have health
benefits due to the numerous biological activities obtained from bioactive peptides,
antioxidant, opioid, antihypertensive, immunomodulatory and antitumor (Sah et al.,
2014). Fermentation of milk by lactic acid bacteria could result in some physicochemical,
sensory, and microbiological changes in the milk (Cassarotti et al., 2014).
Lactic acid bacteria have abundant species and diversity and known to be distributed
in nature. Lactic acid bacteria are known to have the ability to produce large amount of
lactic acid from fermentable carbohydrates. According to Cao et al (2019) study based on
Backhed et al (2005), lactic acid bacteria also play an important role in maintaining
normal function and establishing host resistance to pathogenic microorganism in
intestinal tract.
Lactobacillus plantarum is one of the lactic acid bacteria that is flexible and
functional species. Lactobacillus plantarum is known to have the ability to grow in
various environment, that causes the use of Lactobacillus plantarum as an adjunct culture
in fermented food products, starter culture in meat, and plant materials. Lactobacillus
plantarum also come across as a natural inhabitant of human gastrointestinal tract (Costa
1
, et al., 2014). Choi and Chang (2015) also stated that certain Lactobacillus plantarum
might have an important role in preventing cardiovascular disease. Therefore, this
bacteria could be categorized and used as functional probiotic. This essay will discuss
about the nutritional role of Lactobacillus plantarum milk products.
II. Characteristics of Lactobacillus plantarum in Milk Fermentation
Lactobacillus plantarum is a lactic acid bacteria that is frequently isolated from the
human intestinal lumen. Lactobacillus plantarum is known to have the ability to survive
under low pH conditions such as in the stomach, and duodenum. This bacteria also able to
resist the effect of bile acids in the small intestine and be able to quickly occupy the
gastrointestinal track by binding to the intestinal and colonic mucosa. Lactobacillus
plantarum also known to have the ability to ferment a wide range of sugars. This could
cause by its large genome size (~3.3 Mb circular chromosome) with a high metabolic
potential and a large number of proteins that are involved in regulations and transport
functions (Darby and Jones, 2017). According to Bergey and Boone (2009),
Lactobacillus plantarum could ferment carbohydrates as amygdalin, cellobiose, esculi,
gluconate, mannitol, melezitose, melibiose, raffinose, ribose, sorbitol, sucrose and xylose.
Due to its nature which can withstand extreme conditions such as in low pH
conditions, Lactobacillus plantarum considered to have good probiotic properties and it is
assured that it can tolerate the simulated digestive tract environment and could synthesize
bacteriocins, that have strong inhibitory effect on the growth of gram-positive and gram-
negative bacteria (Gong et al., 2010).
Based on those probiotic characteristics, many researchers have done some studies to
use Lactobacillus plantarum as a starter culture to ferment food products including in
milk. Although, Lactobacillus plantarum is considered as a vitamin and some amino acid
auxotroph bacteria, this finding is not recommended for assessing the characteristics of all
Lactobacillus plantarum due to the characteristics of the non-consistent characteristics of
Lactobacillus plantarum with the subtractions of metabolic pathways based on
comparative genomic analysis in silico. For instance, the Lactobacillus plantarum strain
WCFS1 could perform a complete biosynthesis routes for arginine, glutamate, and
tryptophan, though the other strains of Lactobacillus plantarum did not grow well in the
chemically defined medium without these amino acids, this shows that it is important to
determine essential requirement for certain Lactobacillus plantarum strains (Wegkamp et
al., 2010).
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AND AS AN ADJUNCT CULTURE IN MILK AND MILK PRODUCTS
Alifia N Fadila – 2001541831
Department of Food Technology LB 46
I. Introduction
Milk is a living food that has loads of nutritional and biological properties. There are
lots of varieties of milk that could be consumed by human, for example cow milk, goat
milk, sheep milk and other grass-fed domesticated ruminants (Aspri et al., 2015; Bailone
et al. 2017; Claeys et al., 2014). Milk is known to has natural bioactive such as
antioxidant activities due to the compounds that are inside it such as lactoferrin, casein,
vitamins, and even some flavonoids. Caseins in milk (α casein, β casein, and k casein)
and lactoferrin are known to have the ability to inhibit lipid peroxidation. Vitamins in
milk such as vitamin E and vitamin C are able to act as radical scavengers. Some
flavonoids in milk could act as antioxidants that have role in radical scavenging and metal
ion binding (Marya et al., 2017). In order to extend milk shelf-life, nowadays people
considered to ferment milk. Fermented milk is milk that has undergone an acidification
reaction caused by lactic acid bacteria (LAB). Fermented milk is known to have health
benefits due to the numerous biological activities obtained from bioactive peptides,
antioxidant, opioid, antihypertensive, immunomodulatory and antitumor (Sah et al.,
2014). Fermentation of milk by lactic acid bacteria could result in some physicochemical,
sensory, and microbiological changes in the milk (Cassarotti et al., 2014).
Lactic acid bacteria have abundant species and diversity and known to be distributed
in nature. Lactic acid bacteria are known to have the ability to produce large amount of
lactic acid from fermentable carbohydrates. According to Cao et al (2019) study based on
Backhed et al (2005), lactic acid bacteria also play an important role in maintaining
normal function and establishing host resistance to pathogenic microorganism in
intestinal tract.
Lactobacillus plantarum is one of the lactic acid bacteria that is flexible and
functional species. Lactobacillus plantarum is known to have the ability to grow in
various environment, that causes the use of Lactobacillus plantarum as an adjunct culture
in fermented food products, starter culture in meat, and plant materials. Lactobacillus
plantarum also come across as a natural inhabitant of human gastrointestinal tract (Costa
1
, et al., 2014). Choi and Chang (2015) also stated that certain Lactobacillus plantarum
might have an important role in preventing cardiovascular disease. Therefore, this
bacteria could be categorized and used as functional probiotic. This essay will discuss
about the nutritional role of Lactobacillus plantarum milk products.
II. Characteristics of Lactobacillus plantarum in Milk Fermentation
Lactobacillus plantarum is a lactic acid bacteria that is frequently isolated from the
human intestinal lumen. Lactobacillus plantarum is known to have the ability to survive
under low pH conditions such as in the stomach, and duodenum. This bacteria also able to
resist the effect of bile acids in the small intestine and be able to quickly occupy the
gastrointestinal track by binding to the intestinal and colonic mucosa. Lactobacillus
plantarum also known to have the ability to ferment a wide range of sugars. This could
cause by its large genome size (~3.3 Mb circular chromosome) with a high metabolic
potential and a large number of proteins that are involved in regulations and transport
functions (Darby and Jones, 2017). According to Bergey and Boone (2009),
Lactobacillus plantarum could ferment carbohydrates as amygdalin, cellobiose, esculi,
gluconate, mannitol, melezitose, melibiose, raffinose, ribose, sorbitol, sucrose and xylose.
Due to its nature which can withstand extreme conditions such as in low pH
conditions, Lactobacillus plantarum considered to have good probiotic properties and it is
assured that it can tolerate the simulated digestive tract environment and could synthesize
bacteriocins, that have strong inhibitory effect on the growth of gram-positive and gram-
negative bacteria (Gong et al., 2010).
Based on those probiotic characteristics, many researchers have done some studies to
use Lactobacillus plantarum as a starter culture to ferment food products including in
milk. Although, Lactobacillus plantarum is considered as a vitamin and some amino acid
auxotroph bacteria, this finding is not recommended for assessing the characteristics of all
Lactobacillus plantarum due to the characteristics of the non-consistent characteristics of
Lactobacillus plantarum with the subtractions of metabolic pathways based on
comparative genomic analysis in silico. For instance, the Lactobacillus plantarum strain
WCFS1 could perform a complete biosynthesis routes for arginine, glutamate, and
tryptophan, though the other strains of Lactobacillus plantarum did not grow well in the
chemically defined medium without these amino acids, this shows that it is important to
determine essential requirement for certain Lactobacillus plantarum strains (Wegkamp et
al., 2010).
2
