Fucose-containing Abroma augusta mucilage hydrogel as a potential probiotic carrier with prebiotic function

The mucilaginous polysaccharide from Abroma augusta stem was examined for its physicochemical, thermal, and functional behavior and explored as a carrier for probiotic bacteria. Composed of glucose, galactose, rhamnose, galactouronic acid and fucose, Abroma augusta mucilage (AAM) exhibited shear thinning behavior (following power law equation) and gel like characteristic (showing higher G' value than G″ value). AAM promoted the growth of probiotic strains with positive prebiotic scores of 0.5 ± 0.06 and 0.51 ± 0.05 for Lactobacillus acidophilus and Lactobacillus casei, respectively. Further, probiotic strains were embedded in the AAM matrix followed by freeze-drying with embedding efficiency of >95%. Viscoelastic properties were retained substantially in the rehydrated probiotic-embedded matrix. AAM could protect probiotic bacteria in simulated gastrointestinal conditions, at elevated (80 °C, 20 min) and at low (4 °C, 4 months) temperatures ensuring higher viabilities of embedded probiotic cells. Our findings established potential carrier capabilities of AAM polysaccharides for probiotic bacteria with thickening and prebiotic activity.