Stability of freeze-dried vaginal Lactobacillus in presence of different lyoprotectores

MARIA SILVINA JUAREZ TOMAS; ELENA BRU; GLADYS MARTOS; MARIA ELENA FÁTIMA NADER

CANADIAN JOURNAL OF MICROBIOLOGY

NATL RESEARCH COUNCIL CANADA-N R C RESEARCH PRESS

Lugar: Otawa; Año: 2009 vol. 55 p. 544 - 552

0008-4166

Lyophilized cultures of probiotic microorganisms are employed to start the biomass production at an industrial scale and to include viable functional bacterial cells in the probiotic product. In this study, the effects of different lyoprotectors on the survival behavior during the freeze-drying process and storage of six vaginal Lactobacillus strains were evaluated, and the survival parameters during storage estimated by applying a cubic polynomial model to experimental data. The vaginal lactobacilli showed variation in the extent of losses of viability after lyophilization and long term storage. The presence of 12% sucrose or 12% lactose in water or in 6% skim milk as suspension medium increased the recuperation of viable cells of lactobacilli during the freeze-drying and storage. The application of statistical model and the analysis of survival rates allowed advancing in the optimization of the preservation conditions of each particular strain, in order to reduce costs and simultaneously obtain a higher number of viable and active cells of probiotic cultures for technological applications.