Nazamid  Saari, Farrah Wahida  Othman Ali, A.S.  Abdulamir, Abdulkarim  Sabo Mohammed, Fatimah  Abu Bakar, Yazid  Abdul Manap, Anwarul Hidayah  Zulkifli, 
    Novel, Practical and Cheap Source for Isolating Beneficial γ-Aminobutyric Acid-Producing <I>Leuconostoc </I>NC5 Bacteria,
    Research Journal of Medical Sciences,
    Volume 3,Issue 4,
    2009,
    Pages 146-153,
    ISSN 1815-9346,
    rjmsci.2009.146.153,
    (https://makhillpublications.co/view-article.php?doi=rjmsci.2009.146.153)
    Abstract: GABA is well known for its physiological functions as antioxidant, diuresis, tranquilizer, anti-hypertensive, epilepsy treatment and diabetic prevention. Most of the fermented food products are known and proven for its high content GABA producer, which contributes the food as potential functional foods. Among 5 positive isolates from the Malaysian commercial fermented shrimp product (<I>cincaluk</I>), only one strain of bacteria showed the highest GABA-producing activity. <I>Leuconostoc </I>NC5 showed the highest production ability of both extracellular and intracellular GABA content (2.84&plusmn;0.19 mM, respectively) with GAD activity at 1.93&plusmn;0.37 unit. The effect of cultivation time, temperature, pH and different concentration of glutamate, carbon source, nitrogen source and Pyridoxal-5&#146;-Phosphate (PLP) on the production of GABA was investigated. This study concludes that the optimum conditions for GABA production were recorded at the cultivation temperature of 37&deg;C, pH 5.0 and cultivation time at 168 h. Furthermore, the addition of PLP and nitrogen source to the culture medium significantly increased GABA production by 30-fold. Thus, <I>Leuconostoc </I>NC5 can be a potential starter culture for GABA-enriched functional foods. This strain showed a potential of being starter culture for the production of fermented functional foods containing GABA.
    Keywords: &#947;-aminobutyric acid;GAD activity;lactic acid bacteria;Leuconostoc sp.;fermented shrimp product;fermentation