Abstract:
The link between cholesterol consumption and the risks of developing cardiovascular diseases has been well-documented, a trend which has driven the development of affordable functional foods in recent years. This study aims to determine if mangosoymilk drink fermented with Lactobacillus plantarum BS25 has the ability to reduce cholesterol levels in vitro. Mango-soymilk drink was prepared and a spectrophotometric method of the cholesterol assimilation assay was performed. Results showed that L. plantarum BS25 in mango-soymilk can assimilate cholesterol in vitro (96.11 µg/mL). Moreover, this cholesterol-assimilating ability was observed to be greatly significant (p<0.05) compared to the unfermented drink (3.89 µg/mL) and the probiotic isolates alone (32.36 µg/mL). This could be due to the ability of BS25 to metabolize complex sugars found in soymilk which is linked to flatulence when consumed unfermented based on several studies. This may also indicate that mango-soymilk can be a good growth medium for BS25. The ability of BS25 to assimilate cholesterol is due to bile salt hydrolase mechanism, an enzyme activity that has been well-documented in many L. plantarum strains. BS25’s ability to ferment the sugars in the soymilk also improves the overall quality of the drink. These results indicate that BS25 can be an effective inoculum in developing probiotic drinks using soymilk and mango juice, and at the same time provide potential health benefits including cholesterol reduction to consumers. Further tests using animal models may be conducted to strengthen the results of this study.
