Growth-enhancing supplements for various species of the genus Bifidobacterium.

Various biological materials were tested for their growth-promoting activity of several bifidobacterial species in a synthetic medium containing ample sources of inorganic salts, vitamins, nitrogen, and carbon. It was found that only Bifidobacterium adolescentis and B. longum (ATCC 15708) grew optimally or near optimally in the synthetic medium. All the other bifidobacteria tested grew optimally only in the synthetic medium supplemented with a growth promoter. The best growth promoters for all bacteria were bovine casein digest and yeast extract rather than human milk whey. Other growth promoters, including human and bovine milk wheys, hog gastric mucin, and bovine serum albumin digest were effective with some bacterial species but not with others. Bifidobacteria also grew well when the bovine casein digest (20 mg/ml) was used as the nitrogen source. Only the yeast extract was able to improve growth under these circumstances. The nature of these growth factors has not yet been determined.