Centro de Investigación y Desarrollo en Criotecnología de Alimentos (CIDCA, UNLP-CIC-CONICET), La Plata, Argentina.
Departamento de Ingeniería Química y Tecnología de los Alimentos, Facultad de Ingeniería, UNCPBA, Olavarría, Argentina.
J Appl Microbiol. 2019 Mar;126(3):686-700. doi: 10.1111/jam.14107. Epub 2018 Oct 18.
Kefir is a homemade viscous and slightly effervescent beverage obtained by milk fermentation with kefir grains, which are built up by a complex community of lactic acid and acetic acid bacteria and yeasts confined in a matrix of proteins and polysaccharides. The present review summarizes the role of kefir micro-organisms in grain assembly and in the beneficial properties attributed to kefir. The use of both culture-dependent and independent methods has made possible to determine the micro-organisms that constitute this ecosystem. Kefir consumption has been associated with a wide range of functional and probiotic properties that could be attributed to the micro-organisms present in kefir and/or to the metabolites synthetized by them during milk fermentation. In this context, the role of micro-organisms in kefir health promoting properties is discussed with particular attention to the contribution of yeast as well as bioactive metabolites such as lactic and acetic acid, exopolysaccharides and bioactive peptides. Even though many advances on the knowledge of this ancient fermented milk have been made, further studies are necessary to elucidate the complex nature of the kefir ecosystem.
开菲尔是一种自制的粘稠且略带气泡的饮料，通过用开菲尔粒发酵牛奶制成，开菲尔粒由乳酸和醋酸细菌以及酵母组成的复杂群落，被限制在蛋白质和多糖基质中。本综述总结了开菲尔微生物在谷物组装和归因于开菲尔的有益特性中的作用。使用依赖培养和非依赖培养的方法已经可以确定构成这个生态系统的微生物。开菲尔的消费与广泛的功能和益生菌特性相关，这些特性可能归因于开菲尔中存在的微生物和/或它们在牛奶发酵过程中合成的代谢物。在这种情况下，讨论了微生物在开菲尔促进健康特性中的作用，特别关注酵母以及生物活性代谢物（如乳酸和醋酸）、胞外多糖和生物活性肽的贡献。尽管在这种古老的发酵乳的知识方面已经取得了许多进展，但仍需要进一步的研究来阐明开菲尔生态系统的复杂性质。
