Functional Dairy Drinks Fortified with Bioactive Substances from Silybum marianum and Mentha piperita

Functional foods promote human health and improve physiological response. For example, fermented dairy drinks are often fortified with extracts of biologically active substances that add to their initial nutritional and biological value. This article introduces a new functional cheese-whey drink fortified with extracts of milk thistle (Silybum marianum L.) and peppermint (Mentha piperita L.). Standard methods revealed the physical and chemical parameters of bioactive extracts in fermented dairy environment, e.g., the effect of dose and species composition on the fermentation process. The starter culture samples involved Bifidobacterium longum and Propionibacterium freudereichii subsp. shermanii, as well as strains of Streptococcus salvarius ssp. Thermophilus and Lactobacillus delbrueckii ssp. bulgaricus. The optimized technological parameters and production scheme yielded a novel functional drink fortified with S. marianum and M. piperit extracts that demonstrated excellent commercial potential.