Cereals like barley are now increasingly being explored for their application as ingredients for improving the functional properties in diverse foods. Cereal-based /cereal containing probiotic functional foods are becoming increasingly popular owing to their potential health benefits. Barley is considered as a rich source of dietary fiber, phytochemicals, vitamins and minerals. The presence of β-glucan in whole grain barley has been largely credited for its health benefits. The phytochemicals in barley exhibit strong antioxidant, antiproliferative, and cholesterol lowering abilities, which are potentially useful in lowering the risk of certain diseases. Barley, due to its nutritional contents are considered good substrate for the growth of lactic acid bacteria (LAB) /probiotic bacteria. Several studies have demonstrated the fermentation of barley by LAB. Hence barley can be a good substrate to produce functional fermented foods using lactic acid bacteria. The content of dietary fibre in barley can serve as prebiotics for the probiotic bacteria and thus can add to the functional value of fermented foods. In addition to this barley proteins are said to be good candidates for value-added application as food supplements owing to their functional properties.

The study is on isolation and characterization of lactic acid bacteria from fermented food samples of Garo Hills through Foldscope and thereafter study of the probiotic potentiality of the strains and finally production of value-added functional yogurt. The microbiological analysis was done using foldscope leading to isolation of 51 strains from a total of 15 fermented food samples. Biochemical characterization of the isolates for the confirmation of genus and species through sugar fermentation pattern using API kit led to the isolation of four strains- Lactobacillus brevis FJWJi, Lactobacillus pentosus RBCi, Lactobacillus fermentum FRWGv and Lactobacillus delbrueckii RBWGii, selected on the basis of their coagulating efficiency in milk medium. Probiotic attributes of the selected isolates were determined. The isolates could survive high pH conditions of pH2 and pH3 with viability of log 4.47 CFU/ml by Lactobacillus pentosus RBCi and tolerate 0.5-2% of bile salt with viability of log 6.51 CFU/ml by Lactobacillus brevis FJWJi. The isolates could hydrolyse bile salt but zone of precipitation was absent possibly due to the source of isolation. The isolates were susceptible to most of the antibiotics except for Nalidixic acid and Vancomycin. The cellular auto aggregation percentage for the isolates ranged from 63% to 27% and Lactobacillus brevis FJWJi showed the highest cell surface hydrophobicity of 26%. Therefore, the isolates possess the potentiality of probiotics. The four isolates were used to develop functional cow milk yogurt and storage study was done thereafter. Samples of Treatment 3 had the highest acceptance, especially on Day 3 based on the sensory analysis.

Northeast India is the eastern most region of India. It comprises the eight states Sikkim, Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Manipur, Tripura and Arunachal Pradesh. This review reflects the indigenously prepared fermented rice beverages by different tribes from different states of North-east India. Many researchers have studied on traditionally prepared rice beverages but limited information is available on commercialization of beverages like Sake of Japan. At present, traditional fermented rice beverages are prepared for local consumption only at house-hold level without much consideration about Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP). Studies have shown that fermented rice beverages are rich source of nutrients and have therapeutic values which help to prevent diarrhoea and diabetes. It is generally prepared by adding varieties of medicinal herbs in their starter culture inoculums which are also rich in micro-organism like yeasts, moulds and lactic acid bacteria. These micro-organisms results in the formation of alcohol which is consumed by the local tribal communities without much knowledge about its quality and shelf life of the product. Scientific and systematic approach would help to standardise high quality stable product with increased shelf life and help the tribal communities economically produce it for their livelihood.

Forty isolates of L. reuteri from human infant fecal sample were previously isolated and identified in Microbial Metabolite laboratory of Dairy Microbiology Division, National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal. An initial attempt in context to study safety of 40 strains of L. reuteri was done in terms of decarboxylation of amino acids i.e. their ability to produce biogenic amines i.e. tyramine, histamine and puteriscine,antibiotic susceptibility. Physiological investigation of all the 40 L. reuteri strains for the presence of virulence characters revealed that incidence of such traits was not present as none of the isolate was found to possess β-hemolytic activity, DNAse activity and/or gelatinase activity. All 40 Lactobacillus reuteri strains from infant feces were subjected to antibiotic susceptibility testing using the agar diffusion method. All of them were sensitive to erythromycin (except LR1), rifampicin (except LR25), of loxocin (except LR15 and LR20), novobiocin (except LR1, LR6, LR15, LR21, LR22, LR23, LR25, LR26, LR34, LR 36 and LR38), bacitracin, chloramphenicol and clindamycin (except LR1 and LR25), but they were resistant to polymixin B (except LR15), gentamycin (except LR21), cefazolin, ampicillin (except LR15, LR20 and LR21), kanamycin, amikacin, vancomycin, cephalothin, cefuroxime (except LR5, LR9, LR34, LR38 and LR39).All the strains were found to be safe for human use.