Thesis
Antimicrobial Activity Characterization of Pediococcus Acidilactici Cell-Free Supernatant
The demand of a food preservative has been increasing due to foodborne diseases due to foodborne
pathogens. Moreover, there is also an issue on the health risks caused chemical food preservatives,
further increasing demand on a safer food preservative. Recently, Pediococcus acidilactici has been
gaining interest as a potential natural food preservative due to its ability to produce pediocin, a small
peptide that exhibit antimicrobial activity. The antimicrobial activity of P. acidilactici is attributed to
the metabolites it produces, which can be found in its cell-free supernatant (CFS). However, the
metabolites production is effected by the incubation period of P. acidilactici. This study aims to
determine the optimum incubation period of P. acidilactici that will result in CFS exhibiting the highest
antimicrobial activity. In this study, CFS at various incubation period is subjected to antimicrobial
activity testing against two foodborne pathogens, Listeria monocytogenes and Staphylococcus aureus.
Through agar-well diffusion method, it is found that the optimum incubation period that results in CFS
with highest antimicrobial activity varies depending on the pathogens, 44 hours for L. monocytogenes
and 36 hours for S. aureus. It is also found that P. acidilactici produces CFS exhibiting highest
antimicrobial activity during the stationary phase. CFS at T44 and T36 are also subjected to time-kill
assay and antimicrobial activity characterization. Through time-kill assay, it can be seen that the CFS
is able to supress the growth of pathogens, having bactericidal effect towards L. monocytogenes and
bacteriostatic effect towards S. aureus. From the characterization, it is seen that both organic acid and
protein compounds present in the CFS are responsible for the antimicrobial activity of P. acidilactici
CFS. Further studies can be done in order to better understand how the CFS interacts towards the
pathogens.
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