Naturally fermented pickles harbour many lactic acid bacteria （LAB）. Forty-three LAB strains with conjugated linoleic acid （CLA）-producing ability were isolated from three naturally fermented pickle brines. Of these isolates, Ip15 identified as Lactobacillus plantarum by API 50 CHL system and full-length 16S rDNA sequence analysis exhibited the highest CLA-producing ability （26.1% conversion） at 48 h in de Man Rogosa Sharpe （MRS） broth in the presence of 100 IJg/ml of linoleic acid （LA）. Compared to other strains, L. plantarum strain Ip15 showed the highest tolerance upon increased levels of LA in the medium, i.e., up to 600 μg/ml. This strain converted about 25% of LA into CLA isomers predominantly cis-9, trans-11 CLA （9-CLA） and trans-lO, cis-12 CLA （10-CLA）, of which 75% was 9-CLA. Interestingly, though the conversion rate of LA into CLA by Ip15 remained stable between 100 to 600μg/ml LA levels in the medium, it dropped sharply at 1000 μg/ml. Taken together, the Ip15 strain displayed relatively high LA tolerance with higher conversion rate, which implies that this strain is a valuable candidate for enhancing the CLA content in food-sources like pickles.