N.L.O. Anumba^1,, J. Eke-Ejiofor¹, C. N. Ishiwu²

Yoghurt is one of the best sources of probiotics and its importance to the human gastrointestinal system provides a perfect food matrix for transporting probiotics to the body. Unfortunately, animal milk dominates the typical commercial yoghurt; hence, the need to produce probiotic yoghurt from plant milk. This paper has outlined a new yoghurt analogue, made from a mixture of plant-based materials and analyzed their probiotic potentials, microbial assay and Antibiotic susceptibility. The yoghurt analogue was made from tigernuts, coconut and dates water extracts inoculated with strains of Lactobacillus delbruekii subsp. bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophillus isolated from commercial dairy yoghurts. Probiotics analysis of Yoghurt from vegetable milk showed that the acid tolerance test on the fermentation organisms- Lactobacillus bulgaricus (Strain 3) and Streptococcus thermophillus (Strain 1) had a survival rate at pH. 2.8; tolerance for Bile salt was positive (0.272 and 0.462) for up to 2% bile concentration. Results from the Salt tolerance test showed values of 0.636 at 1% concentration and 0.017 at 9% concentration for Lactobacillus bulgaricus (strain 3), in Strain 1, values reduced from 0.739 to 0.032. Positive results showed survival on known salt concentrations. The full growth of the yoghurt analogue on the antibiotics disc showed resistance to the antibiotics. Antibiotic drugs did not inhibit the growth of the probiotics in the newly developed yoghurt. There was greater zone of inhibition measuring 21.5 mm and 16.0 mm around disk with Escherichia coli; 15.0 mm and 11.0 mm for Shigella dysentriae and no significant inhibition for Staphylococcus aerus as it proved resistant to the plant yoghurt. The strains alone showed similar trend, 20.5mm and 10.0 mm for strains 01 and 03 on E. coli and 7.0 mm and 11.0 mm on Shigella dysentriae, while Staphylococcus aerus showed resistance. The finding of this study affirms that the plant yoghurt is a probiotic yoghurt analogue that can inhibit the growth of some pathogens and resist antibiotic effects when consumed.

Antibiotic sensitivity, pathogenic bacteria, yoghurt analogue