Symbiotic, Hypocholesterolemic and Antioxidant Effects of Potential Probiotic Lactobacilli Strains Isolated from Tunisian Camel Milk

In the present study, 20 selected Lactobacillus strains already characterized in a previousresearch for their capability to grow in conditions simulating the intestinalenvironment, their resistance to antibiotics, their antibacterial activity andtheir adhesion capability to intestinal human Caco-2 TC7 and HT-29 MTX celllines, were further investigated to explore more their probiotic properties.Growth behaviour in the presence of prebiotic (fructooligosac-charides (FOS) and lactulose) at a concentration of 2%, cholesterolremoval by measuring the residual cholesterol in medium supplemented with cholesterol, ability to deconjugate bile saltsusing BSH enzyme andantioxidant activity of culture supernatantof Lactobacillus strains by ABTS·+ and DPPH methods were analyzed. All probiotic strains demonstratedimportant prebiotic assimilation (P u003e 0.05) even with OD600 u003e 3 after 30 h of contact, cholesterol removal ability with maximumpercentage of 57% after 24 h of contact and they were found to liberatesignificantly (P ·+ and DPPH respectively. This study confirmed the suitability of theseprobiotic strains for application in functional food formulations especiallywhere cholesterol reduction and antioxidant activity in food are needed toassess possible in vivo human health benefits.