Abstract: A total of 49 strains of lactic acid bacteria isolated from pickled Chinese cabbage were screened for their probiotic properties by acid and bile salt tolerance tests. Four strains of Lactobacillus plantarum, A44, B51, B54 and C53, and two strains of Lactobacillus pentosus, A16 and B72, were selected as identified by 16S rRNA sequence analysis. The probiotic properties of the six strains were evaluated with respect to hydrophobicity, adhesiveness, auto-aggregation and hemolytic activity. The hydrophobicity of L. plantarum A44 against chloroform and xylene was more than 80%, the adhesion rate to Caco-2 cells was 13.57%, and the auto-aggregation rate was more than 60% after standing for 5 h. Our findings indicated that L. plantarum A44 had better prebiotic characteristics without hemolytic activity than other strains. Therefore, the functional characteristics of L. plantarum A44 in fermented milk were further studied. The results indicated that there were no statistically significant differences (P > 0.05) in pH, titrable acidity or water-holding capacity of fermented milk produced with a commercial starter culture with the addition of L. plantarum A44 as auxiliary starter. However, total viable count of fermented milk was significantly increased to 8.45 (lg (CFU/mL)) (P < 0.05) and viscosity was also significantly increased. Thus, L. plantarum A44 has great potential for application as an auxiliary probiotic starter due to its excellent probiotic properties.

Key words: pickled Chinese cabbage, identification, lactic acid bacteria, probiotic properties, fermented milk