In this research, production of probiotic pomegranate juice through its fermentation by four strains of lactic acid bacteria: Lactobacillus plantarum, L. delbruekii, L. paracasei, L. acidophilus was examined. Fermentation was carried out at 30°C for 72 h under microaerophilic conditions. Microbial population, pH, titrable acidity, sugar and organic acid metabolism were measured during the fermentation period and the viability of all strains was also determined during the storage time at 4°C within 4 weeks. The results indicated that L. plantarum and L. delbruekii increased the pH sharply at the initial stages of fermentation and the sugar consumption was also higher in comparison with other strains, better microbial growth was also observed for these two strains during fermentation. Citric acid, as a major organic acid in pomegranate juice was significantly consumed by all probiotic lactic acid bacteria. L. plantarum and L. delbruekii showed higher viability during the storage time. Viable cells remained at their maximum level within 2 weeks but decreased dramatically after 4 weeks. Pomegranate juice was proved to be a suitable media for production of a fermented probiotic drink.

The effect of lactic acid bacterial fermentation on sugars, organic acids, bio-transformation of phenolic compounds (anthocyanins and ellagic acid), and antioxidant activity was investigated in pomegranate juice. L. plantarum and L. acidophilus were used as probiotic starter organisms. Both bacteria were able to grow in the juice and their viable cells reached to 3.9×10 8 CFU/mL after 72 h of fermentation. Fructose and glucose of the juice were significantly consumed by both probiotic starter cultures, and L. plantarum utilized more sugars in comparison with L. acidophilus. Glucose degradation rate was higher than fructose. The concentration of citric acid, as the main acid found in the juice, was significantly reduced by both bacteria through the first 48 h of the process (P < 0.05). Lactic acid was detected as the most abundant acidic metabolite (6.1 g/L) produced within the fermentation, especially by L. plantarum. LC/MS analysis of different anthocyanins, revealed that these compounds (except pelargonidin 3-glucoside) were significantly decreased in the pomegranate juice after fermentation. DPPH Radical scavenging studies showed that fermentation of pomegranate juice using selected probiotic starters increased the antioxidant activity significantly

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In this study, the effect of acidic extraction conditions (time of 30-90 min, temperature of 75-95 °C and pH of 1.5-3) on the yield and degree of esterification (DE) of citron peel pectin was investigated applying Box-Behnken design. The highest production yield of pectin (28.31 ± 0.11%) was achieved at extraction time of 90 min, temperature of 95 °C and pH of 1.5, as optimal extraction conditions, which was close to the predicted value (29.87%). Under optimum extraction conditions, the DE and the emulsifying activity were 51.33 and 46.2%, respectively. In addition, the emulsions were 93.9 and 93.5 stable at 4 °C, 93.7 and 93.1 at 23 °C after 1 and 30 days, respectively. The determination of flow behavior showed that the pectin solutions had a Newtonian behavior at low concentrations (< 1.0% w/v), while this behavior was changed to pseudoplastic with increasing concentration.

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