Investigate Cholesterol-Lowering Effects of Different Probiotic Strains in Pomegranate Juice Fermentation

Seng, Yeng Hee (2025) Investigate Cholesterol-Lowering Effects of Different Probiotic Strains in Pomegranate Juice Fermentation. Final Year Project (Bachelor), Tunku Abdul Rahman University of Management and Technology.

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Abstract

Pomegranate is being called as “super fruit” due to its bioactive compounds that contribute to health benefits, especially cholesterol lowering effects. This study aims to determine the changes in total phenolic content (TPC), total flavonoid content (TFC) and bile salt hydrolase (BSH) activity of pomegranate juice (PJ) after fermentation using different probiotic strains Lactiplantibacillus plantarum TAR4 (LP), Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. lactis ATCC12315 (LD), Lactobacillus acidophilus LA5 (LA) and Lacticaseibacillus casei ATCC393 (LC). This study also determines the correlation between viability of probiotics, TPC and TFC of fermented PJ with cholesterol-lowering effect through BSH activity. Probiotics strains were inoculated into pasteurized PJ and incubated anaerobically for 24 hours, 48 hours and 72 hours at 37℃. Sampling will be done for each incubation hour and subjected to analysis. The viability of probiotics increased up to 48 hours across all strains. TPC decreased over time except L.delbrueckii fermented PJ increased throughout the fermentation process. TFC of fermented PJ increased to the highest level (ranging from 50.04 ± 0.51 to 58.71 ± 1.39 mg QE/L) among all strains after 48 hours. All strains showed positive BSH activity after fermentation except L.acidophilus. The growth of L.casei was the highest at 72 hours incubation (1.48 ± 0.08 x 109 cfu/mL) and there is a correlation between viability and TPC with BSH activity, r=0.901, p<0.05 and r=-0.800, p<0.05 respectively. In conclusion, this study showed that all strains have cholesterol-lowering effects. L.casei showed positive BSH activity after fermentation with the highest viability among all strains. A future study is proposed to be combined with quantitative BSH activity assay such as HPLC method and bioluminescent imaging method to obtain greater precision and objectivity. Keyword: Pomegranate, Lactiplantibacillus plantarum TAR4, Lacticaseibacillus casei ATCC 393, Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. lactis ATCC 12315, Bile salt hydrolase activity