Present study was carried out to evaluate a new bacterial strain, Lactobacillus plantarum F22 as probiotic strain. L. plantarum F22 was isolated from a traditional inoculum called 'Phab' which is used for the preparation of a traditional beverage chhang of Lahaul and Spiti of Himachal Pradesh. The isolate was identified by conventional and molecular techniques and tested for different probiotic properties. The 16S rRNA sequence of the isolate was registered in National Centre for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) under accession number KT865223. Further, L. plantarum F22 was evaluated for its probiotic potential viz., autoaggregation capacity, hydrophobicity, acidity tolerance, antibiotic susceptibility and cumulative probiotic potential and was found to possess good probiotic potential with a cumulative probiotic score of 91.7%. L. plantarum F22 has been proved to be highly effective, therefore can be recommended for the development of new pharmaceuticals and functional food preparations.
Keywords: Chhang; Himachal Pradesh; Lactic acid bacteria; Lactobacillus plantarum; Probiotic.