ISOLATION AND IDENTIFICATION OF INDIGENOUS PROBIOTICS FROM DAIRY PRODUCTS AND HUMAN BREAST MILK

Abstract

Probiotics are live microbes that beneficially affect the human and many studies have proved their promising role as safe and natural therapeutics. The isolation of probiotics from indigenous sources may develop a new way to improved probiotic strains with precious medical relevance for human benefits. Hence the aim of the present study is to isolate probiotics from locally available various dairy products (Viz. raw milk of cow and buffalo and traditional homemade curds) and human breast milk and to identify them upto species level. A total of about 80 samples from human breast milk (n=30) and dairy products (n=50) were collected aseptically and screened for the probiotic microflora using standard microbiological methods. The colonies suspected for probiotics were picked up for morphological and biochemical identification which were further confirmed by molecular methods and application of bioinformatics. The preliminary results showed several different microflora viz. Streptococcus, Staphylococcus, Lactobacillus, Diplococcus, etc. About twelve (12) isolates were further confirmed to be of different species belonging to the Genus Lactobacillus. Therefore dairy products and human breast milk are considered as suitable natural sources for probiotic microorganisms especially Lactobacillus spp., which are reported to show beneficial effects in humans.