摘要：The aim of the study was to identify the occurrence of lactic acid bacteria in tea leaves and examined the probiotic activity. Probiotics are live microorganisms that are similar to beneficial microorganisms found in the human gut. Probiotics are available to consumers mainly in the form of dietary supplements and foods. Most probiotics are bacteria and come from two groups namely Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium . Owing to the widespread increased interest in finding probiotics from safe resources, several studies have been directed at identifying such microorganisms. In this study, the presence of probiotic microorganisms were investigated in the northern tea leaves of Iran. Samples of tea including green leaves and black tea leaves were collected and screened for identifying lactic acid flora. Microorganisms were isolated by pour plate method on MRS agar plates. The plates were incubated under aerobic and anaerobic conditions at 37°C for 48 h. One rod-shaped bacteria with the potential of lactic acid fermentation and probiotic activity was isolated from both two sources. The bacillus strain identified as Lactobacillus paraplantarum according to morphological and biochemical tests and 16s rRNA amplification. This microorganism could inhibit the growth of Salmonella typhi , E. coli , Staphylococcus aureous , Entrococcus fecalis and Citrobacter sp. successfully. Further more, this strain could produce extracellular tannase which is a beneficial property for probiotic activity. According to this study, we have concluded that, some of the important probiotic microorganisms exist in the tea leaves which could be utilized as a safe source for isolating probiotics.
