Encapsulation of synbiotics & assessment of survival ability to various physiological stresses

Important criteria to determine the efficacy and the success of the product containing the probiotics are the acceptance of the probiotic product by the consumer, which is possible only when sufficient survival occurs during its production, processing & also passage through the gut to the intestine without the loss of viability. To enhance the growth of probiotics, prebiotic supplements are administered. But, sometimes these prebiotics fails to promote the growth of only beneficial bacteria; they may also give rise to the improved growth of unwanted bacteria residing in the gut. Encapsulation is a useful technique in providing a favorable environment for the synbiotics (combination of probiotic & prebiotics) to sustain & remain viabile under all the physiological stresses. In the present study two probiotics namely Lactobacillus casei and Lactobacillus rhamnosus were taken as probiotic strains, crude orange juice as the prebiotic component, the probiotic strains are checked for survival ability under different physiological conditions of pH(1,3,5,6), temperature (40C,450C,550C,650C) & oxygen tolerance(aerobic, facultative anaerobic & microaerophilic), the same parameters were also assessed for probiotic strains with orange juice as prebiotic component & later with cultured probiotics along with the prebiotic that is, synbiotics in an sodium alginate encapsulation matrix. Survival ability was assessed through (colony forming unit) cfu/ml & lactate dehydrogenase assay. From our study, all the encapsulated synbiotics were grown in different pH levels.Interestingly, the microorganisms showed the increased viability in all the pH levels, that is, at pH1(49CFU/mL), pH3(CFU/mL), pH5(121CFU/mL) and pH6(109CFU/mL compared to probiotic or symbiotic alone. Similarly, survival of encapsulated cells was reported at low at 40C was 69CFU/mL& high temperature 650C 41cfu/ml. Encapsulation also provided sufficient protection against oxygen tension, increasing the survival ability of the synbiotics.