The Probiotic Characteristics of Lactobacillus acidophilus Isolated from Infant Feces

This study was conducted to obtain a good probiotic strain of L. acidophilus from infant feces which have the acid and bile tolerance. The selection criteria for the strain included antimicrobial activity, serum cholesterol reduction, resistance to the hydrogen peroxide, angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibition activity and iron solubility. To this end, five probiotic Lactobacillus strains have been isolated from infant feces. Especially, L. acidophilus SD 105 had strong antimicrobial activity against Listeria sp., high deconjugation activity in the medium which contained 0.5% of glycocholate (GCA) and high resistance to the hydrogen peroxide. L. acidophilus SD 102 showed the highest ACE inhibition activity among the tested cultures and L. acidophilus SD 103 showed iron solubility of more than 70%.