Effect of Ganoderma lucidum polysaccharides on the growth of Bifidobacterium spp. as assessed using real-time PCR

• Main Authors: Shaari, Yamin, Mustafa, Shuhaimi, Ariff, Arbakariya, Abu Bakar, Fatimah, Abdul Khalil, Khalilah, Othaman, Muhammad Anas, Abd Manap, Mohd Yazid
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Faculty of Food Science and Technology, Universiti Putra Malaysia 2012
• Online Access: http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/41010/1/Effect%20of%20Ganoderma%20lucidum%20polysaccharides%20on%20the%20growth%20of%20Bifidobacterium%20spp.%20as%20assessed%20using%20real-time%20PCR.pdf; http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/41010/; http://www.ifrj.upm.edu.my/19%20%2803%29%202012/%2856%29%20IFRJ%2019%20%2803%29%202012%20Shuhaimi.pdf

The use of component from Ganoderma lucidum as prebiotic source is interesting as the G. lucidum itself was known for more than a decade in the traditional Chinese medicine. In this work, Ganoderma lucidum crude polysaccharides (GLCP) and Polysaccharide-fraction number 2 (PF-2) were used as carbon sources in the fermentation with Bifidobacterium sp. The results showed the potential of prebiotic effect of the G. lucidum extract in batch-culture fermentation based on increment in the growth of bacteria used (0.4-1.5 log10CFU/mL) after 18h fermentation. Fermentation was further done using faecal materials as bacterial inocula and bacterial growth changes were examined using real-time PCR. The results showed the ability of GLCP and PF-2 to support the growth of Bifidobacterium genus with 0.3 and 0.7 log10cells/ml increased, respectively. Interestingly, Lactobacillus which is known as beneficial bacterial genus also showed growth increment with 0.7 and 1 log10cells/ml increased. The competition for carbon sources thus inhibits the growth of potentially harmful genus, Salmonella (0.3 and 0.5 log10cells/ml) in comparison to the control.