Biological Potential Of Semi-Purified Enterocin Of Enterococcus Sp. Yt3 Against Selected Food Pathogens

The efforts for prevention of food borne illness and infections draw great attention, worldwide. Different methods, both physical as well as chemical, are commonly used for improving shelf life of food, but limited efficiency of physical methods, and potential health hazards associated with chemical methods, have brought biological processes in the limelight. One such natural, environment friendly, highly effective natural food preservants are, bacteriocins.Thus, there is a continuous need for better bacteriocin producers in the search for more effective bacteriocins than what are already available in the market. In the current study, food samples were collected from local market of Jalandhar, Punjab, and evaluated for bacteriocin producing Lactic acid bacteria. Enterococcus sp. YT3 was found to be the most efficient bacteriocin producer among the isolates, with higher bacteriocin activity exhibited by the given strain under optimized cultural conditions. The partially purified bacteriocin have molecular weight between 35kDa & 48kDa, possess pH (2-10) and thermal stability (even at 121 degrees C for 20 min), and exhibit antimicrobial activity against different bacteria (E. coli, P. aeruginosa, S. aureus, B. subtilis and L. monocytogenes). Future studies will focus on checking different food samples for real time evaluation of shelf life improvement.