The two isolated strains displayed high survival rates under low pH (>71%) and high bile salt conditions (>88%). However, L. lactis subsp. lactis 44Lac showed better tolerance than L. plantarum15HN. This high tolerance capability is related to the bi-layer membrane structure, which enables easy tolerance of inverse conditions [47,50,52e55]. These results are in contrast with other studies that found that Lactobacillus strains (L. plantarum) tolerates inverse conditions better than other genera (Lactococcus) among LAB iso- lates