Promising Probiotic Properties of the Yeasts Isolated from Rabilé, a Traditionally Fermented Beer Produced in Burkina Faso

Microorganisms. 2023 Mar 21;11(3):802. doi: 10.3390/microorganisms11030802.

Abstract

In recent years, research on yeasts as probiotics has gained more and more interest, which will allow the development of "new" products in the probiotics market. In this context, seventeen yeast strains isolated from Rabilé, a traditional beer produced in Burkina Faso, were assessed for their probiotic attributes. The yeast identification was performed by molecular methods, including PCR-RFLP and 5.8S-ITS region sequencing. Saccharomyces cerevisiae (14 strains) was the predominantly identified species, followed by Pichia kudriavzevii (2 strains) and Rhodotorula mucilaginosa (1 strain). Except for R. mucilaginosa, all yeast strains grew well at human temperature. The yeast strains showed high resistance when they were exposed to simulated gastrointestinal conditions. Auto-aggregation ability was between 70.20 ± 10.53% and 91.82 ± 1.96%, while co-aggregation with E. coli ranged from 24.92 ± 3.96% to 80.68 ± 9.53% and with S. enterica serovar Typhimurium from 40.89 ± 8.18% to 74.06 ± 7.94%. Furthermore, the hydrophobicity of isolated strains toward n-hexane was in the range from 43.17 ± 5.07% to 70.73 ± 2.42%. All yeast strains displayed high antioxidant capabilities, and the strains did not show hemolysis halos, such that they can be considered safe. Additionally, S. cerevisiae strains strongly inhibited the growth of foodborne pathogens. This is the first preliminary study to identify and characterize the yeast strains isolated from Rabilé with interesting probiotic properties.

Keywords: Burkina Faso; Rabilé; Saccharomyces; non-Saccharomyces; probiotic properties; yeasts.

Grants and funding

The authors are grateful to AUF (Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie) for supporting Iliassou MOGMENGA through the programme de bourses « Eugen Ionescu » 2020–2021 at the University of Agronomic Sciences and Veterinary Medicine of Bucharest, Romania. They also acknowledge the German DAAD service for their financial support through its In-Country/In-Region Scholarship Program 2017 (91682081), the University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN), Enugu State, Nigeria.