Isolation of Lactic Acid Bacteria from Raw Camel Milk in Saudi Arabia and Evaluation of Their Probiotic Potential

Milk contains wide microbial diversity, composed mainly of lactic acid bacteria (LAB), which are used as probiotics for both humans and livestock. We isolated, characterized, and evaluated LAB from indigenous Saudi Arabian camel milk to assess its probiotic potential, including antagonistic activity (against Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and Klebsiella pneumoniae), survivability in simulated gastric juice, tolerance to bile salts, cell surface hydrophobicity, auto- and co-aggregation, and antibiotic susceptibility tests. The two most promising LAB strains showed probiotic potential and were identified as Leuconostoc mesenteroides based on 16S rRNA gene sequences. These strains inhibited all pathogens tested to varying degrees and were resistant to kanamycin and vancomycin. None of the LAB cultures demonstrated hemolytic or gelatinase activity. Overall, the current data suggests that camel milk has substantial potential for introducing probiotics/LAB strains into the human food chain, making camel milk a potentially sustainable food.