Soybean, sesame and Job’s Tears were evaluated for protective effect under gastrointestinal (GI) tract
conditions on viability of thirteen strains of fermented vegetable Lactobacillus plantarum. The addition
of the cereals greatly improved the strain survival in simulated gastric juice (pH 2.0) for 180 min,
especially for six sensitive strains and the protective effect depended on their compositions. All test
strains were relatively resistant to simulated small intestinal juice (pH 8.0) with 0.45% bile salt for 240
min. Furthermore, the viability of L. plantarum under simulated bile juice after sequential of simulated
gastric juice was also investigated. All strains were quite stable with high survival rate (>84%). These
results indicate that soybean, sesame and Job’s Tears could be used as food carriers to deliver
probiotic lactic acid bacteria through the GI system.