Marine bacteria being utilised to aid in the medicinal field.

Potential of marine lactic acid bacteria to ferment Sargassum sp. for enhanced anticoagulant and antioxidant properties.

 

Albeit this topic does not relate exactly to the topics we are studying currently, I thought it was a very interested topic. As the title suggests Sargassum sp. has already been studied regarding its anticoagulant and antioxidant properties, this study aims to see whether marine lactic acid bacteria (LAB) can be used as a starter culture to enhance these properties.

 

These bacteria also have a long history of being used to preserve types of foods. They not only do this just by adding taste and flavour but also by reducing the risk of pathogenic microbes by the internal production of lactic acid and other antimicrobial peptides. The Sargassum spp. are a group of brown alga and have been extensively exploited for their range of uses, which are not just limited to anti-coagulant and antioxidant properties.

 

Shobharani et al (2012) isolated this alga from the west coast of India and were then transported to the laboratory under iced conditions. The samples were then rinsed, dried and then mashed up and sieved to give a fine powder. Essentially the method used was that the fine powdered part of the seaweed was suspended in distilled water, and then either autoclaved to give the sample control or left alone to show the effect that having this active LAB would have on the properties presented. From each sample, an aliquot was drawn at a regular interval of 3 days and analysed for viable cell count, pH, total titratable acidity, total and reducing sugars.  For antioxidant activity they used alternate isolates and cultures to determine whether these had an effect as well.

 

The results revealed that a fermentation period of 12 days was effective with maximum culture viability and other desirable characteristics such as pH, total titratable acidity, total and reducing sugars. Under optimum fermentation period, the sample fermented with P1-2CB-w1 (Enterococcus faecium) exhibited maximum anticoagulation activity and antioxidant activity.  It was concluded quite clearly that this type of bacteria do in fact have a wider range of uses than just food preservation, and this can hopefully be utilised within the medicinal world sooner rather than later.

 

The results from this are once again contributing to an understudied area but the aims of the authors were to show and analyse the suitability of these bacteria for starter cultures, thus improving the final product and usefulness of this brown alga species, and they did this indeed demonstrating that under the right researched conditions this is indeed the case.

 

Reference:

 

Shobharani,P., Halami,P. and Sachindra,N. (2012). Potential of marine lactic acid bacteria to ferment Sargassum sp. for enhanced anticoagulant and antioxidant properties. Journal of Applied Microbiology, 1364-5072.

 

Availabe at:  http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jam.12023/pdf