Fermentation of xylo-oligosaccharides obtained from wheat bran and Bengal gram husk by lactic acid bacteria and bifidobacteria.

Different strains of Bifidobacteria, Lactobacilli and Pediococci spp. were evaluated for their utilization of xylo-oligosaccharides derived from Bengal gram husk and wheat bran water extractable polysaccharides. The fermentation pattern of xylo-oligosaccharides by bacteria depends on the nature of xylo-oligosaccharides i.e. degree of polymerization and arabinose to xylose ratio as well as the bacterial strain tested, which inturn are very important for designing species-specific prebiotic xylo-oligosaccharides and synbiotic preparations for incorporation in various health foods. All the bacterial strains tested readily utilized xylo-oligosaccharides derived from bengal gram husk and wheat bran as indicated by the increase in (a) turbidity of the culture broth (b) xylanase, xylosidase and arabinosidase activities (c) dry cell mass and (d) the liberation of short chain fatty acids (SCFA). Acetate was found to be the major SCFA produced as the end product of fermentation and its amount varied from 75.4 to 100 mol%. Xylo-oligosaccharides derived from wheat bran were found to have better prebiotic activity compared to the one derived from Bengal gram husk and this can be ascribed to relatively high amount of arabinose.