Turan, Nasip Ümran; Çelebioğlu, Hasan Ufuk; Akşit, Hüseyin; Taş, Recep

Phenolic compounds are found in the seeds, flowers, leaves, stems, branches, and fruits of plants. They have an important place in human nutrition as many fruits and vegetables have phenolic compounds. Recently, many phenolic compounds have been used as functional foods and research of new phenolic compounds that are candidate to become functional foods is ongoing. Probiotics which are beneficial microorganisms, are living microbes that benefit the host when taken in sufficient amounts and they have an important role in human gastrointestinal microbiota. The present study aims to investigate effects of Axillarin and Verbascoside, two phenolic compounds isolated from Tanacetum alyssifolium and Plantago euphratica, respectively, on two very common probiotic bacteria Lactobacillus acidophilus and Lactobacillus rhamnosus. For this, growth kinetics, auto-aggregation, and microbial adhesion to solvents, which are some critical properties of probiotics, were investigated. Axillarin and verbascoside showed significant improvement on growths of Lactobacillus acidophilus LA-5 and Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG depending on the dose. Auto-aggregation properties were enhanced by these phenolic compounds, even though surface hydrophobicities were decreased. In conclusion, the present study indicates that the vital conditions of the probiotics could be modulated by Axillarin and/or Verbascoside, consequently their adhesion and colonization capabilities could be altered.