Impact of prebiotic potential of stevia sweeteners-sugar used as synbiotic preparation on antimicrobial, antibiofilm, and antioxidant activities

Ebtehag A.E.Sakr^a, Mona I. Massoud^b

Botany Department, Faculty of Women for Arts, Science and Education, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt.

Abstract

Stevia sweeteners-sugar are low-caloric prebiotic components that fermented by beneficial bacteria and enhance the host health. This study aimed to characterize, select the prebiotic for the chosen probiotics to create synbiotic preparation, and investigate their bioactive properties. The structure of stevia sweeteners-sugar was studied by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), mass spectroscopy (MS), and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). There were possible hexose sugars attached to the aglycon groups. Fermentability of these sweeteners by six Lactobacillus spp. and two Bifidobacterium spp. strains was examined and the pH reduction was comparable to the De Man, Rogosa and Sharpe (MRS) media. The best stevia sweeteners-sugar concentration was 0.5% that had favorable effect on the probiotic growth. Moreover, the added sweeteners to the culture media had clearly better growth of probiotics when compared with inulin. The synbiotic supernatants enhanced the antimicrobial and antibiofilm activities of probiotics against potential pathogens and also supported the antioxidant activity. Short-chain fatty acids (SCFA) determined by HPLC indicated that stevia extract-sugar (SE–sugar) was the best from synbiotic samples. In conclusion, the synbiotic of Lactobacillus casei with SE–sugar as a prebiotic new compound suggested its potential use as pharmaceutical, functional food industry and biocontrol agents for treating bacterial infections.

Keywords: Stevia rebaudiana, Probiotics, Prebiotic, Stevia sweeteners-sugar, Synbiotics.