Isolation and characterisation of lactic acid bacteria from cassava by products

Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) are known for their probiotic properties. Literature reports how they can be isolated from both food products and their by-products, in particular from food/byproducts which went through a fermentation process. Cassava is a root crop with high nutritional value, widely consumed in many African, Asian and South American countries. Cassava food items and by-products could be used to isolate probiotic strains. In this work we report about the isolation of several LAB strains from the effluents of gari and fufu, two cassava-based food items typical of Nigeria. The isolate were analysed to determine their morphology, Gram-staining, acid and bile salt tolerance; moreover, molecular characterisation was also performed. Indeed some of the strains showed interesting properties. This study shows the potential of cassava as a source of LAB, which could find numerous applications in the food industry.