List of Content
- What is LAB?
- Plant and soil benefits
- Food enhancing benefits
- Health benefits
- How to use LAB
- Keep the septic system clear.
- LAB remove pesticides from food and soil.
- LAB in Sustainable Agriculture and Natural Farming
- LAB in Health and Disease
- Regulating the immune system & improve the body’s resistance to disease.
- Improve digestion in humans and animals.
- Alleviate intestinal infections
- Lactic acid bacteria for skin health
- Obesity and Weight Loss
- LAB Support Vaginal Health
- LAB may assist in certain types of cancer treatment
- Do the acids in the digestive tract destroy LAB?
- Growing LAB
- Step 1 – Inoculating LAB
- Step 2 – Emplifying LAB
- Step 3 – Feeding and Stabilising LAB
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What is LAB?
Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) are a group of Gram-positive bacteria that are cocci or rod-shaped, non-respiring, and do not form spores. They use carbohydrates as the primary carbon source and ferment them to produce lactic acid.
Why use LAB? LAB goes into a pathogenic environment like a first aid emergency worker cleaning up. It brings the oxygen back into the system so good microbes can start dealing with these toxins. It is also great for decomposing animal waste. It will enable it to go away naturally. It preserves and enhances feed, and you can use it to sterile your equipment.
All of us have some strains of LAB in our gut that help us to digest food and settle an upset stomach. Lab restores the immune system, allows more diverse beneficial microbes and promotes healthy bone structure.
The benefits of genuine LAB – True LAB is a comprehensive family of lactic acid bacteria. It is an all-around way of a comprehensive inoculant. It is shelf stable at room temperature, so you do not have to store it in a fridge. Lactic acid bacteria are very compatible with plants, soil and mammals.
Plant and soil benefits
- A leading source of probiotics for soil organisms
- Prevent the growth of plant pathogens.
- Degrade mycotoxins – toxic substances produced by a fungus.
- Inhibits fungal and bacterial overpopulations in plants’ rhizosphere and phyllosphere.
- Remove pesticides from food and soil
- Detoxify hazardous chemicals, and enhance plant health.
- Regulate soil organic matter and the biochemical cycle.
- Act as a fertiliser promoting biodegradation, accelerating soil organic content, and producing organic acid and bacteriocin metabolites.
- Get rid of odours and decompose animal droppings fast.
Food enhancing benefits
- Produce fermented foods.
- Improve both the taste and texture of food and feed
- Improve nutritional value in food.
- A functional food ingredient
- A leading source of probiotics
- Get rid of foul odours.
Health benefits
- A natural immunomodulator
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23001058/ - A natural probiotic that modulates the gut microbiota.
- Control intestinal infections.
- Antimicrobial and antimicrobial – Prevent the growth of pathogens.
- Improve digestion of lactose.
- It is effective against food-borne bacteria, including L. monocytogenes. It improves the shelf life of food products.
https://academic.oup.com/fqs/article/doi/10.1093/fqsafe/fyac045/6608977 - Anti-obesity – Assist in managing weight loss.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4034319/ - LAB plays a role in a healthy vagina.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0923250817300839 - Improve skin health, alleviate acne and may slow down the ageing process.
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/asj.13017 - Assist in preventing certain types of cancer.
- Help to control serum cholesterol levels.
https://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/20/9/2073
How to use LAB
- Pour it directly on animal droppings – It will decompose very fast.
- Dilute with water 1:500 – (2 ml to 1 litre water)
- Add this to your animal feed the night before – It will improve its value by decomposing the enzymes in the feed. In this way, you get much more nutrition from the same feed.
- Improve plant growth – Mix 2 ml LAB serum with 1 litre water. Apply it as a foliar spray and soil drench. LAB improves the plants’ efficiency in nutrient uptake, which improves the plant’s growth. Lab serum allows nutrients to become more bioavailable and easily absorbable by plants. Plants do not use organic nutrients directly. Microbes convert organic nutrients to their inorganic constituents, which the plants utilise.
- Aid Organic Fertilizer – Mix 1 ml LAB with 2 litres of water-nutrient solution. Lacto consumes organic nutrients making them bio-available to plant roots. Plants don’t use organic fertilisers. Microbes break it down into inorganic constituents, which plants can take up.
- Houseplants – Dilute 2 ml LAB with 1 litre (non-chlorinated) water; water your houseplants or spray it on the leaves.
- Aid Compost – Mix 2 ml to 1 litre (non-chlorinated) water and spray on the compost pile to improve decomposition.
- Reducing Odours – You can spray it on anything that smells bad. Add 2 ml LAB serum to 1 litre of water. Apply where there is odour buildup. LAB “eat” the odour-causing germs, and the smell is gone.
- Indoors – Reduce foul odours of cats, dogs, mice and other pets. It reduces the smell of stinky shoes, wet clothes, gym clothes on the way to the wash, smoker’s scent, and nasty smells.
- Outdoors – Use it to control odour in animal pens, including pigs, cows, and chickens, or around the yard where needed.
- Animal beddings – Dilute 2 ml LAB with 1 litre (non-chlorinated) water. Mix it with animal bedding (Chicken and pigs) to reduce smell and increase longevity. Spray until the bedding is slightly damp but not wet. The amount you spray depends on the climate. You can spray more in a dry environment and mix in evenly. A wetter humid climate needs a bit less. Mix it evenly into the bedding. When the smell is extreme, use more.
- Keep the septic system clear – Are you tired of having your septic system drained? Dilute 20 ml lab to 1 litre water and pour in a septic tank once a month. Research indicates that LAB can suppress bacteria pathogens in human faeces.
- Clear clogged drains – Add 10 ml LAB to 1 litre of water (non-chlorinated) for semi-clogged drains. Use in the evening and allow the microbes to do their work during the night.
- Aquaculture – LAB works great in aquaculture – Add roughly 50ml LAB serum per 700 m3 of fish-containing water. (Example: A pond of average 20 meters by 17 meters wide and 2 meters deep. 20 x 17 x 2 = 680 m3. To a pond this size, you roughly add 50ml LAB. LAB assists in digesting fish wastes, cleaning up water, and improving water quality. It allows fish to grow larger due to their digestive efficiency. It allows for a higher population of fish in the same water.
- Growth & digestive aid for animals – Mix 2 ml to 1 litre (non-chlorinated) water, then add that mixture to the animal’s water at 30ml per litre. This is very flexible. The Lactoserum is not harmful, so it’s just about adding enough to be effective without wasting it. TIP: To boost animal growth, mix 2 ml to 1 litre (non-chlorinated) water and soak the food in this solution for a few hours to a few days. Food is pre-digested when animals eat it. You’ll see great results in livestock and poultry.
- Oral intake for humans – Add ten drops to a glass of water.
- Topical use for humans – 10 drops to 500ml water as a face wash, rinse or use it as a toner. Add a few drops to a neutral cream base.
Keep the septic system clear.
Are you tired of having your septic system drained? Dilute 20 ml lab to 1 litre water and pour in a septic tank once a month. Research indicates that LAB can suppress bacteria pathogens in human faeces. Lactic acid bacteria have a sanitising effect on faecal sludge.
Lactic acid bacteria destroy pathogens and control odours in faecal sludge. Bacterial pathogens in Fecal sludge can be eliminated through the low-cost, non-destructive application of LAB.
LAB remove pesticides from food and soil.
Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) are probiotics and can degrade pesticides.
In a study, the three aims were to investigate the ability of six strains of lactic acid bacteria (LAB) 1. to grow in the presence of the pesticide chlorpyrifos, 2. to quantify the degradation of the pesticides by each strain, and 3. to evaluate the secretion of alkaline phosphatases. All strains tested were able to grow in the presence of the pesticide, and there was no difference between growth in contaminated samples compared to the controls. All LAB strains could degrade chlorpyrifos showing a minimum degradation percentage of 80.3% after 24 h. The LAB strains tested could tolerate and grow in chlorpyrifos and degrade it quickly and effectively. This indicates the ability of LAB to remove this pesticide from a complex medium resembling food matrices.
Recent research data showed that LAB is essential in biodegrading insecticides and decontaminating foodstuffs.
LAB in Sustainable Agriculture and Natural Farming
LAB regulate soil organic matter and the biochemical cycle. It detoxifies hazardous chemicals and enhances plant health. Recently, LAB has received much attention regarding sustainable agriculture and natural farming. The metabolites in LAB promote plant growth and stimulate shoot and root growth. It is a natural fertilizer that promotes biodegradation, accelerates the soil’s organic content, and inhibits fungal and bacterial populations in the rhizome and phyllosphere. Several studies suggest that LAB efficiently decontaminates and detoxifies heavy metals and mycotoxins from the soil, water and other environments.
LAB is used as a plant growth promoter and as a biocontrol agent in fruit trees and other crops to control unwanted insects and disease. They detoxify pesticides and mycotoxins in food and feed. Their antimicrobial and growth-promoting compounds can replace inorganic fertilizers and pesticides. LAB also form a starch film to protect fruit and vegetables from oxidation damage. In addition to other compounds, LAB has been used as a probiotic in aquaculture. LAB nanomaterials and nano chemicals have appeared as promising agents for plant growth promotion and disease control agents in the near future.
LAB in Health and Disease
LAB has been shown to alleviate immune-mediated health complications such as allergy, atopic dermatitis, rhinitis, oral tolerance, cancer and inflammatory bowel diseases. Studies have also shown that consumption of LAB-fermented food products can lead to cardiovascular disease control and improve mental health. Prevention of antibiotic-associated diarrhoea, reduction in lactose intolerance, production of the conjugated linoleic acid, breakdown of phytic (an inhibitor of mineral absorption in the intestine) acids and improvement of gut microbial balance have also been linked with increased consumption of LAB fermented foods.
Regulating the immune system & improve the body’s resistance to disease.
LAB act as an immunomodulator, effectively enhances the innate and adaptive immune systems, alleviates allergies, defends against intestinal pathogen infections, and prevents gastric lesion development. It enhances the bioavailability of nutrients, which is great for maintaining optimum health.
LAB added in food or water suppresses the growth of harmful bacteria. It enhances the gut flora for an optimum line of defence in the digestive systems of animals and humans. The increased efficiency of nutrients and more nutrients available at minor metabolic cost assist in improving the body’s resistance to disease.
Improve digestion in humans and animals.
After eating, mix 2 ml LAB with a glass of water and drink it. It improves how you feel after meals, particularly meals rich in meat. It lessens the feeling of heaviness and gives you more energy!
Alleviate intestinal infections
Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection, the main cause of chronic gastritis, increases gastric cancer risk. LAB extracts could inhibit the bacterial adhesion and invasion, gastric inflammation and DNA fragmentation induced by Helicobacter pylori.
When used as probiotics, LAB may help decrease the occurrence of gastritis and reduce the risk of H. pylori infection without, inducing side effects.
LAB are capable of taking antigens to the mucosal and systemic immune systems initiating specific antibody responses in serum and secretions.
Lactic acid bacteria for skin health
LAB improve skin health, may prevent hyperpigmentation and inhibit atopic diseases like dermatitis and eczema. The topical application of LAB is effective for depigmentation, improving surface roughness, lessening mild skin wrinkles caused by environmental photo-damage, and encouraging skin lightening effects.
Obesity and Weight Loss
LAB have shown an effective influence on preventing obesity in animal experiments and human clinical trials. LAB play a role in regulating the relationship between gut microbiota and healthy weight maintenance. LAB is effective in preventing obesity and improving lipid metabolism. A high-fat diet may damage microbiota and intestinal permeability. LAB can regulate gut microbiota and improve water and nutrient absorption through the lining of the intestines. Some metabolites produced by LAB can regulate host lipid metabolism-related pathways.
LAB Support Vaginal Health
Numerous studies reported that healthy vaginal community state types are usually dominated by LAB (i.e. Lactobacillus), low diversity of anaerobic bacteria, and a balanced vaginal immune system. A disrupted vaginal ecosystem often results in diseased state of healthy vaginal community state types and symptomatic vaginitis. LAB has shown potential health benefits in immunomodulation and restoration of healthy microflora in the gut and vagina. They are benedicial in reducing recurring vaginal infections.
LAB may assist in certain types of cancer treatment
LAB may assist in repairing defecting apoptotic processes or controlling cell proliferation in cancer. This make it and attractive tool for helping treat Colorectal cancer.
For example, based on the mechanism of apoptosis, one could modify LAB such as L. reuteri, L. acidophilus and L. rhamnosus to increase their anticancer effects in vivo. Likewise, the use of individual LAB like L. acidophilus or combination of different LAB strains to strengthen the ability of the immune system against cancer development can prove useful in prevention and treatment.
Do the acids in the digestive tract destroy LAB?
Although many types of lactic acid bacteria get destroyed in the gastrointestinal tract, the strains that survive play a role in the health of the digestive system.
There is increasing evidence that some LAB species can also be used as live vehicles for the in situ (place of origin) delivery of therapeutic agents to the mucosa of the human gastrointestinal tract. Many LAB species survive through the gastrointestinal tract. Some are part of the normal GIT microbiota. Live recombinant LAB that produces microbial antigens has been shown to trigger an immune response against the corresponding pathogens.
The right balance between sugar fermentation and decarboxylation/deimination ensures buffered environments, thus enabling LAB to survive in the human gastric tract and colonise the gut.
There is increasing evidence that lactobacilli and bifidobacteria, which inhabit the gastrointestinal microbiota, develop antimicrobial activities that participate in the host’s gastrointestinal system of defence.
Bifidobacteria, along with lactobacilli, are an essential part of the normal intestinal microbiota of various mammalian species and are also the best-characterised and widely commercialised probiotics. Both lactobacilli (part of lactic acid bacteria and bifidobacteria are non-spore-forming, gram-positive, lactic acid bacteria (LAPB). Different probiotic strains of Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium genera possess significant and widely acknowledged health-promoting and immunomodulatory properties.
Growing LAB
One of the first things you need to know when starting with natural growth and microbes is what nature tells us. The human nose is a good indicator of good and bad microbes. Bad microbes are generally anaerobic microbes. Anaerobic microbes stink. Your nose tells you not to be around as it might compromise your immune system. A lot of flies hanging around is also a sign of bad microbes.
Step 1 – Inoculating LAB
What you’ll need
- About 500ml water
- A cup of regular rice
- Any container to wash the rice
- A glass jar
- Small piece of cloth or linen
Get started
- Start with about 500ml of rice wash water
- Take regular rice and put it in a container.
- Add the water and wash the rice with it. Stir or shake it several times. It is the same procedure as washing rice before you cook it.
- Strain the water from the rice. You’ll end up with a cloudy liquid. It is a rice starch liquid.
- This is your initial inoculant. Pour the liquid into a glass jar and cover it with a cloth.
- Put the jar in a dark cupboard and leave it there for about three to five days, depending on the temperature. It can take three days in warm weather and five or longer in colder weather.
- At this stage, lactic acid bacteria will predominate the liquid. You’ll see a thin layer has formed on top of the liquid. The liquid in the middle will be less cloudy, and a white sediment layer will lie at the bottom.
- The liquid will have other microbes, primarily airborne, but lactic acid bacteria will predominate.
- Even though you can use this mixture as LAB, there is a way to amplify it.
Step 2 – Emplifying LAB
What you’ll need
- About 1 litre of milk.
- 1.5 to 2 litre Glass jar
- Cloth or linen to cover it
- The inoculant you’ve made in Step 1
- Syringe (optional)
- Brown sugar or molasses (At the end to preserve and feed the LAB)
Get started
- Add the milk to the jar. Always make sure that the jar is big enough. The milk should fill at most 2/3 of the jar; you need at least one-third of open space as you are growing life and want it to be at its best.
- Open the liquid inoculant – Do not shake the liquid. You want to separate the top and bottom sediments from the middle liquid. Carefully extract about 110ml from the clear central part of the inoculant liquid with a syringe.
- Add it to the milk. The liquid you’ve added is predominantly LAB but contains other bacteria collected from the air and surrounds. Now that you’ve put it in the milk, you selected food meant only for lactic acid bacteria. This means the other bacteria don’t have the food to grow on and will starve; only the lactic acid bacteria will thrive.
- Cover the jar with cloth or linen and put it in a dark cupboard. After about three days, it will separate. It will have a unique, almost sweet smell. This is a sign that LAB is growing. You will notice a clear division between curd on top and liquid beneath. The liquid bottom part is now pure LAB. All the other bacteria that do not belong are starved out, and only a refined concentration of LAB remains.
- Let it stand for between four and seven days. You will notice that the curd on top will start to compress and separate more from the LAB. Pour the curd and liquid through a strainer to separate them.
Step 3 – Feeding and Stabilising LAB
- Add equal parts brown sugar or molasses. This will ensure that LAB is stabilised at room temperature. It also supplies enough to eat so the LAB doesn’t get stressed and other microbes invade their system. By feeding off the sugar, the lactic acid bacteria stay powerful and fend off invaders.
- Stir and store out of sunlight. The LAB cultures in molasses will stay stable for three years.
- Dilution of 1:20 with unchlorinated water will last up to 6 months.
- Discard the content if it starts smelling bad.
The beauty of natural farming is that you can consume anything you make for your plants.
