Author(s)

Raúl Ricardo Gamba^1,2,3, Carolina Ni Colo¹, Mariana Correa^1,3, Andrea Astoreca^3,4, Teresa Alconada^3,4, Graciela De Antoni^1,2,5, Angela León Peláez¹

¹Cátedra de Microbiología, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas, Universidad Nacional de La Plata, La Plata, Argentine.
²CIDCA (Centro de Investigación y Desarrollo en Criotecnología de los Alimentos), La Plata, Argentine.
³CONICET (Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Tecnológicas), CCT-La Plata, La Plata, Argentine.
⁴CINDEFI (Centro de Investigación y Desarrollo en Fermentaciones Industriales), Universidad Nacional de La Plata, La Plata, Argentine.
⁵CIC-PBA (Comisión de Investigaciones Científicas-Provincia de Buenas Aires), Buenas Aires, Argentine.

Aspergillus parasiticus, a common fungal contaminant in food, produces aflatoxin B₁, which is classified as human carcinogen. Kefir is an ancient fermented beverage obtained by the fermentation of different substrates with kefir grains. A very important waste produced by the dairy cheese industry is the whey permeate, which nowadays is a strong ambient contaminant. The aim of this work was to assess the effect of whey permeates fermented with kefir grains against A. parasiticus growth, aflatoxin B₁ biosynthesis, and the kefir microorganisms protection against the cell damage produced by aflatoxin B₁. It was observed that kefir-cell-free-supernatants (CFS) produced fungal inhibition. A fungicidal effect was observed with 65% v/v of CFS in the culture medium (final pH 4.55 and total undissociated lactic and acetic acid concentration 34.08 mM). Under these conditions, aflatoxin production was not detected. Finally, it was found that non-viable kefir microorganisms protected HepG2 cells from the damage produced by aflatoxin B₁.

Aspergillus parasiticus, Whey Permeate, Aflatoxin B1, Kefir Supernatants, Lactic Acid, Acetic Acid, Cytotoxicity, HepG2 Cells

Gamba, R. , Colo, C. , Correa, M. , Astoreca, A. , Alconada, T. , Antoni, G. and Peláez, A. (2015) Antifungal Activity against Aspergillus parasiticus of Supernatants from Whey Permeates Fermented with Kefir Grains. Advances in Microbiology, 5, 479-492. doi: 10.4236/aim.2015.56049.