Many laboratories or companies need isolate and culture Lactobacillus to do researches or develop probiotic products. However, existing methods of isolating Lactobacillus are inadequacy, complex, expensive and time-consuming.

Recently, researchers in Institute of Subtropical Agriculture, Chinese Academy of Sciences (ISA) have developed a beneficial and practical technique for isolation of Lactobacillus.

Researchers use glass bottles (250 ml in size) to contain the commercial MRS media supplemented with agar power. After the media (about 150-ml each bottle) was dropped to the bottle, carbon dioxide (CO₂) gas was aerated into the bottle for about 10 minutes to exhaust oxygen, and then the bottle was autoclaved at 115℃ for 10 min. After sterilization, the mouth of bottle was sealed with sealing film and the bottle was placed obliquely at room temperature until the media was solid. A bottle with solid slant medium was made for isolation of Lactobacillus. Four different species of Lactobacillus were isolated from pig ilea digesta using this new method.

Researchers provided a new simple method to isolate Lactobacillus, which didn’t require anaerobic equipments needed in other methods. This new method is a simple and useful tool to isolate Lactobacillus and has the potential to be used as a tool to isolate other anaerobes.

The research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) (31302003). The study entitled “A Simple and Convenient Method for Isolation of Lactobacillus” has been published in Volume 11, Issue 3&4, Page 572-575, December 2013 of The Journal of Food, Agriculture and Environment (JFAE), details could be found at http://world-food.net/download/journals/2013-issue_3&4/2013-issue_3&4-_food/f110.pdf. The technique has already applied for the national invention patent (201310010005.8).