Other Organisms Using Pantothenic Acid

For most assays, the incorporated pantothenic acid has to be Hberated en2ymatically. Usually, a combination of pantotheinase and alkaline phosphatase is used to hberate the bound pantothenic acid. The official method for pantothenic acid of the Association of Official Analytical Chemists (AOAC) is the microbiological assay that uses U. Plantarium (A.TCC 8014) as the test organism (71). Samples are extracted at 121°C at pH 5.6—5.7, proteins are precipitated at pH 4.5, and the resulting clear extracts are adjusted to pH 6.8 prior to assay. This procedure is only suitable to determine calcium pantothenate or other free forms of pantothenic acid. 

Vitamins and Minerals. Milk is a rich source of vitamins and other organic substances that stimulate microbial growth. Niacin, biotin, and pantothenic acid are required for growth by lactic streptococci (Reiter and Oram 1962). Thus the presence of an ample quantity of B-complex vitamins makes milk an excellent growth medium for these and other lactic acid bacteria. Milk is also a good source of orotic acid, a metabolic precursor of the pyrimidines required for nucleic acid synthesis. Fermentation can either increase or decrease the vitamin content of milk products (Deeth and Tamime 1981 Reddy et al. 1976). The folic acid and vitamin Bi2 content of cultured milk depends on the species and strain of culture used and the incubation conditions (Rao et al. 1984). When mixed cultures are used, excretion of B-complex vita-... 

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