Assessment of probiotic attributes of Enterococcus lactis Dh2 and Enterococcus lactis AP4 isolated from traditional fermented foods

The aim of the present study was to access probiotic attributes such as antimicrobial activity, acid and bile tolerance, auto aggregation capacity, hydrophobicity assay and antibiotic susceptibility of two screened potential lactic acid bacterial strains i.e. Dh2 and AP4 from dhaheli and aloe-vera pickle. These two strains were subjected to biochemical characterization; safety assessments and antimicrobial activity were found to have broad spectrum antagonism. The genomic level identification had been performed and these cultures of lactic acid bacteria were identified as Enterococcus lactis Dh2 with accession number vertical bar MH916768 vertical bar and Enterococcus lactis AP4 with accession number vertical bar MK051470 vertical bar. The results showed that the isolates were able to tolerate acidity up to 180 min as low pH as 2 and bile salt of 2%. Both the isolates showed good percentage of auto aggregation and strong hydrophobicity. As the two isolates were sensitive to most of the tested antibiotics, these data suggest that such isolates can be considered potential candidates for probiotic for commercial use.