Studies on antimicrobial agent produced by lactobacillus acidophilus

Lactobacillus acidophilus가 생산한 항균물질(抗菌物質)에 관한 연구(硏究)

The research was conducted(1) to confirm the agent(s) responsible for the antimicrobial activity contained in the fermented tomato juice with L. acidophilus(2) to extract and purify the antimicrobial agent(s)(3) to find the biological, physical and chemical properties of the agent(s). The following results were obtained and summarized as followings; 1. The agent responsible for the inhibitory activity was confirmed by both well assay method using fermented tomato juice with L. acidophilus and turbidimetric technique using the cell-free filtrate or neutralized filtrate of tomato acidohilus culture and found exerted antimicrobial agent other than lactic acid. 2. The procedures of purification : The isolation and purification of antimicrobial agent from the lyophilized acidophilus tomato culture were carried out by (1) methanol extraction (2) acetone extraction, (3) Sephadex G-50 gel filtration (4) paper chromatography and (5) thin layer chromatography. 3. The biological, physical and chemical properties of antimicrobial agent: The biological, physical, chemical properties of the purified antimicrobial agent were: (1) The antimicrobial activity was strong against test organisms; Bacillus subtilis(ATCC 6633), Escheichia coli(ATCC 25922), Staphylococcus aureus(ATCC 167), Pseudomonas fluorescens(KFCC 32394), Proteus vulgaris and Shigella dysenteriae. (2) The pH value of the agent was 2.0 and the inhibitory activity was lost when it was neutralized at 7.0 of pH and the agent was heat stable at $121^{\circ}C$ for 60 minutes. (3) The ultraviolet light absorption spectra of methanol-acetone extract and TLC fraction exhibited a maximum absorption at 260nm and 224nm respectively. (4) The most purified agent from TLC plate increased about 130-fold in activity. (5) The agent isolated from TLC plate was free from $H_2O_2$ or lactic acid. 4. Bioautographic assy: By means of bioautography of the agent on silica gel of TLC plate a strong inhibitory activity against B. subtilis was demonstrated. 5. Mass spectrometry: The agent obtained from TLC plate was analyzed by mass spectrometry which show the parent peak at m/e 264 suggesting the molecular weight of the compound and molecular group such as [$C_2H{^+}_4$], [CO], [CH=NH], [$C_3{H^}4_7$], [$\begin{array}{rcl}O\\{\parallel}\\CH_3-C\\\end{array}$], [$C_6-H{^+}_{11}$], [$C_5H{^+}_{11}$], [$\begin{array}{rcl}O\\{\parallel}\\C_5H_7-C^+\\\end{array}$] were suggested.