A large number of probiotic strains are beneficial to the human health. However, many of the useful microflora of the gut and intestinal origin are non-culturable. Therefore, to become a successful probiotic product a strain in addition to its beneficial traits needs to be easily culturable. The bacteria could be cultured in bulk in easily available media. Modifications in the existing technologies have focused on increment in yields through bulk culture methods. This could produce large amounts of cheap probiotic strains. Another issue which requires to be addressed is the viability of the probiotic strains. The bacteria must be propagated and processed in ways which acclimatize it to the harsh environmental conditions that it will encounter once inside the human body before they could exert their effects.
Large Scale Propagation of Probiotics:
A bacterial strain could be in commercial demand for its ability to provide health benefits and the easy technologies involved in its large scale production. Therefore, efforts are being carried out to generate efficient culture techniques that will ensure the high yield of cells without compromising the stability of the probiotics in food or other related supplements. Since, many of the strains of intestinal origin with probiotic efficacy are difficult to culture and in order to have an impact on economy and health they need to survive. Also, development of newer technological strategies could only lead to diversification of the strains that gives rise to more efficient product generation. Until recently, the large scale production of probiotic strains have been carried out using conventional culture techniques. Some of the favored techniques include batch fermentation, suspension culture. [Read more…]