*2.8. Radical Scavenging Activity*

In order to evaluate the radical scavenging activity of the extracts, two methods were comparatively used, namely, the scavenging percentages of DPPH and ABTS radicals [28]. In order to evaluate the DPPH radical scavenging activity, a volume of 0.1 mL from the hydrophilic extract was mixed with 3.9 mL of DPPH solution (1 mM in methanol), mixed, and allowed to react for 1 h at room temperature in the dark. For ABTS radical scavenging activity, a volume of 0.15 mL from the lipophilic extract was mixed with a volume of 2.9 mL ABTS solution (7 mM ABTS in 2.45 mM K2S2O8) and allowed to react for 2 h at room temperature in the dark. The radical scavenging activity was expressed as mMol Trolox/g DW using a calibration curve.

### *2.9. Viable Counts of L. casei 431®*

In order to evaluate the viable counts of *L. casei* 431®, 10-fold serial dilutions of the freeze-dried powders were performed using sterile physiological serum (0.9 NaCl %, *w*/*v*) by using the pour plate technique, as described by Vasile et al. [29]. The viable cell number was determined by estimating the number of colony-forming units (CFU) by cultivation on MRS agar plates (medium at pH 5.7) after 72 h of aerobic incubation at 37 ◦C. The counts were expressed as CFU/g DW.
