Nutritional Requirements

Lactobacillus Thermophilus is quite the demanding bacteria.  It is most often noted for growing in milk cultures and broth cultures, as mentioned before.  But the specifics do not end there.  A temperature of 50-60 degrees is required for healthy growth. 

As far as oxygen goes, the bacteria is Facultative Anaerobe; in agar cultures the growth takes place near the surface, meaning that it does prefer oxygen, but it is not as much of a necessity as the temperature and physical environment is. 

Lactobacillus Thermophilus, after a study was made regarding nutritive requirements, is found to need the nutrient Bacto-Proteose Peptone, or Bacto-Peptone.

These two nutrients provide Lactobacillus with a healthy diet so to speak, and when there is enough, Lactobacillus Thermophilus grows plentifully.  However, these nutrients are not commonly found, therefore explaining why Lactobacillus is difficult to isolate as a Bacteria anywhere outside a scientific culture.  A minimum amount of agar culture should be 0.3 percent Bacto Proteose in order to see visible colonies of Lactobacillus Thermophilus, anything under will be a useless culture, and anything over will provide you with better results.

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