Role of probiotic Lactobacillus fermentum KKL1 in the preparation of a rice based fermented beverage Kuntal Ghosh a , Mousumi Ray a , Atanu Adak a , Suman K. Halder a , Arpan Das a , Arijit Jana a , Saswati Parua (Mondal) b , Csaba Vágvölgyi c , Pradeep K. Das Mohapatra a , Bikas R. Pati a , Keshab C. Mondal a,⇑ a Department of Microbiology, Vidyasagar University, Midnapore 721102, West Bengal, India b Department of Physiology, Bajkul Milani Mahavidyalaya, Purba Medinipur, West Bengal, India c Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Science and Informatics, University of Szeged, Szeged, Hungary highlights  Lactobacillus fermentum KKL1 was isolated from a rice based fermented beverage.  The bacteria liberated amylase and phytase enzymes.  Fermented material contain higher amount of malto sugars, minerals and vitamins.  The fermented material showed strong antioxidant activity. article info Article history: Received 29 November 2014 Received in revised form 27 January 2015 Accepted 29 January 2015 Available online xxxx Keywords: Lactic acid bacteria Fermented beverage Malto-oligosaccharides Phytase Probiotic abstract A dominant lactic acid bacteria, Lactobacillus fermentum KKL1 was isolated from an Indian rice based fer- mented beverage and its fermentative behavior on rice was evaluated. The isolate grown well in rice and decreased the pH, with an increase of total titratable acidity on account of high yield in lactic acid and acetic acid. The production of a-amylase and glucoamylase by the strain reached plateau on 1st and 2nd day of fermentation respectively. The accumulation of malto-oligosaccharides of different degrees of polymerization was also found highest on 4th day. Besides, phytase activity along with accumulation of free minerals also unremittingly increased throughout the fermentation. The fermented materials showed free radical scavenging activity against DPPH radicals. In-vitro characteristics revealed the suit- ability of the isolate as probiotic organism. The above profiling revealed that probiotic L. fermentum KKL1 have the significant impact in preparation of rice beer and improves its functional characteristics. Ó 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Traditional fermented foods prepared from most common types of available cereals (such as rice, wheat, corn or sorghum, etc.) are well known in many parts of the world. Cereals are always considered as a good source of dietary carbohydrates, proteins, vitamins, minerals and fibers. However, the nutritional quality of some cereals and the sensory properties of their products are sometimes poor compared to other staple-foods due to presence of natural contaminants, antinutrients and inadequacy of essential micronutrients (Blandino et al., 2003). Fermented cereals have been noted for their superior nutritional value, shelf-life and digestibility compared to the unfermented counterpart (Coda et al., 2011). A group of microbes (natural or from starter culture) grow well in cereal based foods, biochemically and organolepti- cally transform the substrates, produce different metabolites and enrich the food with different micro-nutrients (vitamins, minerals, amino acids, etc.), health beneficial edible microbes (i.e. probiotics), fermentable sugars (i.e. prebiotic), dietary fibers, phytochemicals and digestive enzymes. Apart from basic nutrients, bioactive components exert significant beneficial effects on the intestinal micro environment, particularly modulating gut micro- bial composition and their functional behavior. Considering these beneficial effects, the grain-based probiotic functional foods have become more popular than conventional dairy-based products in Japan and Europe (Nout, 2009). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.biortech.2015.01.130 0960-8524/Ó 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. ⇑ Corresponding author. Tel.: +91 3222 276554x477; fax: +91 3222 275329. E-mail address: mondalkc@gmail.com (K.C. Mondal). Bioresource Technology xxx (2015) xxx–xxx Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Bioresource Technology journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/biortech Please cite this article in press as: Ghosh, K., et al. Role of probiotic Lactobacillus fermentum KKL1 in the preparation of a rice based fermented beverage. Bioresour. Technol. (2015), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.biortech.2015.01.130