Growth and $\beta$-Glucosidase Activity of Bifidobacterium

$\beta$-Glucosidase was known to be involved in the mutagenic activation of $\beta$-glucosides. The level of $\beta$-glucosidase in the feces of adults was 2.7 times higher than that of infants. There was no difference in the percentage of $\beta$-glucosidase positive strains among Bifidobacterium isolates between adults and infants, corresponding to 90 and 92$%$, respectively. However, the strains from adults showed 1.9 times higher enzyme activity than those from infants when grown in Brain Heart Infusion medium. $\beta$-Glucosidase negative strains could not ferment $\beta$-glucosidase substrates, such as cellobiose, salicin, naringin, esculin and arbutin. Presence of $\beta$-glucosidase in Bifidobacterium did not alter the degree of growth in reconstituted skim milk. The $\beta$-glucosidase level was much lower in milk and vegetable medium, although cells grew above $10^8$cfu/ml, than in BHI medium. This study suggests that metabolic activation of the $\beta$-glucosides by Bifidobacterium $\beta$-glucosidase varies significantly depending on types of growth medium.