Abstract
SUMMARY: The involvement of toxic oxygen intermediates in the bacteriostatic effect of milk was determined by producing bacterial growth curves using turbidimetry in the presence and absence of oxygen radical-scavenging substances. Using whey as substrate, catalase, haemoglobin combined with ascorbic acid and xanthine oxidase inhibitors all provided protection against oxygen toxicity for a strain ofStaphylococcus aureusand ofStreptococcus agalactiae. Superoxide dismutase and mannitol were less effective. This was evident in whey alone and in the presence of oxygen radicals produced exogenously by the t-butylhydroperoxide, H2O2and xanthine/xanthine oxidase systems.

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