Gamal M. Hamad^{1, 2,}, Marwa M Abu-Serie^{3, 2}, Safwat H. Ali⁴, Elsayed E. Hafez^{5, 2}

Antifungal proproties of the probiotic culture supernatant (PCS) of three of probiotic bacterial strains; Bifidobacterium bifidum, Lactobacillus acidophilus and Lactobacillus plantarum was tested as antifungal against two mycotoxin producing fungi; Aspergillus flavus and Aspergillus parasiticus. The results revealed that the probiotic culture supernatant showed high antifungal activity either on the fungal growth and aflatoxin (AF) production. Moreover, probiotic culture supernatant (PCS) at 1% concentration achieved high inhibition of AFB1 production by Aspergillus flavus by percentage reached to 76%. But this percentage was increased up to 77% in case of Aspergillus parasiticus. In more details, it was observed that probiotic culture supernatant (PCS) are capable to make complete inhibition for the synthesis of both AFG1 and AFG2 produced by Aspergillus parasiticus. In addition, the probiotic culture supernatant are rich with the antioxidant compounds which help in food control and induce the human immune system. It can conclude that the probiotic culture supernatant of the three examined probiotic strains could be used as food additives for controlling the food contamination and aflatoxin production.

Probiotic bacteria, Aspergilus spp, Aflatoxins, food contamination, food control