Structural elucidation and in vitro fermentation of extracellular α-d-glucan from Lactobacillus reuteri SK24.003

Publication date: October 2015 Source:Bioactive Carbohydrates and Dietary Fibre, Volume 6, Issue 2 Author(s): Ming Miao, Yajun Ma, Bo Jiang, Steve W. Cui, Shengfang Wu, Tao Zhang The molecular structure and its relationship to in vitro fermentation properties of α-d-glucan from Lactobacillus reuteri SK24.003 were investigated in this study. The chain structure was elucidated by 2D NMR spectroscopy and a possible repeating unit was deduced. During in vitro fecal fermentation, the relatively low initial bacterial population was observed during first 6h incubation and small increase for α-d-glucan for 12–48h incubation. A significant decrease in pH (approximately 2.0) was observed for fecal microbiota exposed to α-d-glucan. Acetic acid, propionic acid, n-butyric acid along with total short-chain fatty acid (SCFA) increased upon incubation, and d-glucan was initially fermented well resulting in the higher production of SCFA at 12h. The n-butyric acid value at 48h fermentation (1.29mM) was higher than that of some commercial prebiotic oilosaccharides. These results suggested that α-d-glucan might be efficiently utilized by gut bacteria and may have a positive effect for gastrointestinal health.
Source: Bioactive Carbohydrates and Dietary Fibre - Category: Food Science Source Type: research