Three brewers' and three bakers' yeast extracts (YE)were obtained from five commercial suppliers. They were added to microbiological media and their growthpromoting properties were examined using four lactic cultures (Lactobacillus casei EQ28 and EQ85, Lactobacillus acidophilus EQ57, Pediococcus acidilactici MA18/5-M). Bakers' YE have a higher total nitrogen content than brewers' YE, but there was not always a correlation between the nitrogen content and growth. A systematic preference for bakers' YE over brewers' YE was only encountered with Lb. casei EQ85, but the other lactic cultures had variable reactions to the source of YE. With Lb. casei EQ85 and Pc. acidilactici 17/5M, mixing of the two sources of YE gave progressively higher growth as a function of the content of the better YE. With Lb. acidophilus EQ57 and Lb. casei EQ28, however, there were instances where a mixture of 75% brewers' YE with 25% bakers' YE gave biomass levels higher than those obtained with the pure products. A series of autolyses were conducted with mixtures of brewers' and bakers' yeast, to see if the YE obtained differed from those obtained from autolysis of the individual yeast cultures. Brewers' yeast autolysates had higher turbidity than those of bakers' yeast. The maximum yield was obtained with the co-autolysis of a combination of 60% bakers' yeasts and 40% brewers' yeasts. Growth of Lb. acidophilus EQ57 was best in the autolysate obtained from 100% brewers' yeast, in spite of the higher nitrogen content of YE produced when bakers' yeast was used during co-autolysis.
*Corresponding authorThe autolysate of yeast cells is a valuable source of various substances which can be used as ingredients in foods, feeds and fermentation media (Peppler, 1982;Selmer-Olsen and Sorhaug, 1998). Many workers have shown the growthpromoting properties of yeast extracts (YE) on bacterial growth (Bibal et al. 1989;Milton et al. 1991; Jensen and Hamer, 1993; Ibrahim and Bezkororainy, 1994; OlmosDichara et al. 1997). Yeast extracts also enhanced lactic acid production rates by lactic acid bacteria (Aeschlimann and von Stockar, 1990).Although YE are generally less expensive than protein hydrolysates, they still remain a relatively expensive material for large-scale fermentations process (Neklyudov et al. 1993). In most cases YE are autolysates of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, as brewers' or bakers' yeast. The YE obtained from brewers' yeast are generally less expensive than those obtained from bakers' yeast. This is primarily because biomass for the manufacture of brewers' yeast extracts is usually obtained from breweries as surplus brewer's yeasts rather than from sources of primary-grown yeasts such as bakers' yeast produced on molasses (Peppler, 1982). Selmer-Olsen and Sorhaug, 1998 have shown that autolysed brewery yeast can be added to whey for both growth and production of metabolites on the large scale. There is thus an economic interest in using brewers' YE in microbiological media, but little is known of the comparative growth-promoting propertie...