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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Microbiol.

Sec. Food Microbiology

Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2025.1536593

This article is part of the Research TopicEnsuring Food Safety and Quality in Sustainable Emerging Production MethodsView all 7 articles

Assessment of potential probiotic lactic acid bacteria in rice-based fermented products of Southern Assam, Northeast India

Provisionally accepted
  • 1Assam University, Silchar, India
  • 2Gurucharan College, Silchar, Assam, India

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

Indigenous ethnic fermented products have gained recognition as valuable sources of probiotic bacteria, which play a crucial role in maintaining the natural balance of the gut microbiota.This study aimed to identify and evaluate potential probiotic lactic acid bacteria present in diverse rice-based fermented products of Southern Assam. A total of 16 isolates were recovered from 25 samples, preliminarily identified by morphological and biochemical tests, and further confirmed using 16S rRNA gene sequencing. The potential probiotic strains were further screened for their tolerance to low pH, gastric juice, bile salts, and pancreatin enzymes, revealing notable variations in resistance among the isolates. The assays for cell surface hydrophobicity and auto-aggregation demonstrated a significant ability of the strains to adhere to intestinal epithelial cells. The absence of DNase and hemolytic activity confirmed the safety of the isolates.Additionally, the isolates exhibited sensitivity to various antibiotics and displayed significant antagonistic activity against test pathogens. All these tests yielded statistically significant results, with p-values of <0.05 and <0.01, reinforcing the probiotic potential and safety of the isolates. Further, the study reported the absence of technological properties by the isolates, concerning proteolytic, lipolytic, and amylolytic activity. These promising isolated strains hold potential as safe probiotics, offering significant health benefits.

Keywords: Indigenous fermented products, probiotic bacteria, Lactic Acid, Safety criteria, gut health

Received: 29 Nov 2024; Accepted: 26 May 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Yumnam, Nath, Chakraborty and Sharma. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence: Dr Indu Sharma, Assam University, Silchar, India

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