FERMENTED YELLOW MOMBIM JUICE USING Lactobacillus acidophilus NRRL-4495: IMPACT ON VIABILITY AND BIOACTIVITY

Interest in fruit juices with probiotic bacteria has been increased recently due to the demand to develop nondairy functional beverages. Thus, the present study aimed to evaluate the effect of fermentation of Lactobacillus acidophilus NRRL B-4495 in yellow mombin juice on probiotic viability and bioactivity. The yellow mombin (Spondias mombin L.) juice was inoculated with 9.0 Log CFU/mL of L. acidophilus at an initial pH of 6.4. The fermentation was carried out at 30 °C for 24 h, and measurements of pH, proteins total, total phenolic content, antioxidant activity, and viable cell count were made every 2 h. In addition, the microbiological stability of the refrigerated fermented juice at 4 °C was evaluated for 28 days. Antibacterial activity against Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, and Enterococcus faecalis was carried out according to the CLSI broth microdilution method. The results are presented as the mean value of triplicate data with standard deviation. The significant difference between the mean of juice samples was determined by one‐way ANOVA with post-hoc Tukey’s test. The results showed that the maximum cell viability of 12.93 ± 0.39 Log CFU/mL was obtained at 16 h. Total phenolic content decreased during fermentation, with a reduction from 120.6 ± 1.2 to 80.0 ± 0.5 µg GAE/mL. However, the antioxidant capacity evaluated using ABTS and DPPH did not show any change along with the fermentation. Viability of fermented juice decreased of 12.0 ± 0.1 Log CFU/mL to 9.3 ± 0.2 Log CFU/mL at 7 days of storage (p<0.05), and maintained in 8.60 Log CFU/mL after 28 days. Also, the beverage displayed inhibition of 44.5 ± 12.4% against S. aureus and 35.0 ± 3.3% against E. coli. These results are very promising and may serve as a good base for developing a new nondairy functional food product.