Therapeutic aptitude of fermented camel milk: case of antimicrobial activity of whey proteins

Abstract

The objective Whey proteins (WP) are highly functional elements containing bioactive peptides. The aim of this study is to evaluate the effect of spontaneous fermentation on the antimicrobial activity of WP in camel milk. Samples of the milk are analyzed in the raw state and after the fermentation. The pH and acidity are determined as well as the enumeration of lactic acid bacteria (LAB). The antimicrobial activity was carried out by the agar well diffusion assay, adapting the good method. The results shows that the fermentation process has shown that the pH value is decreasing and LAB show a significant increase during fermentation. The antimicrobial activity gave a very significant difference between fermented camel whey proteins (FCWP) and raw camel whey proteins (RCWP). Then the FCWP gives a zone inhibition (ZI) of 17, 16.5, 13.25 and 10.5 mm respectively for S. aureus, P. aeruginosa, K. pneumoniae and E. coli. In addition, the RCWP gives a ZI of 16, 9.5 mm respectively for S. aureus and P. aeruginosa, and 0 mm for K. pneumoniae and E. coli. These results indicate that the fermentation process induced by the development of LAB favors the proteolysis of WP, which increases the antimicrobial activity.