Probiotics, Prebiotics and Synbiotics as Functional Food Ingredients: Production, Health Benefits and Safety

Abstract

In nutritional sciences there is much interest in dietary modulation of the human gut. The gastrointestinal tract, particularly the colon, is very heavily populated with bacteria. Probiotics are nonpathogenic microorganisms mostly of human origin which, when administered in adequate amounts, confer a health benefit on the host. The principal probiotics in use include lactobacilli, bifidobacteria, some nonpathogenic strains of Escherichia coli, and Saccharomyces boulardii. These microbiota display favourable effects which qualify them for therapeutic use. For this purpose, probiotics have to fulfil a series of requirements verifying their efficacy and safety. Prebiotic is a non-viable food ingredient selectively metabolized by beneficial intestinal bacteria. They are cleaved by microbial enzymes to numerous substances indispensable for metabolic and functional activities of the intestinal mucosa. Among dietary carbohydrates, nondigestible oligosaccharides including some disaccharides are the main prebiotics, which can either be extracted from natural sources or be manufactured by enzymatic or chemical reactions. A very promising area in the development of enhanced functional food ingredients is the development of synbiotics which are combinations of a probiotic and a prebiotic. This review provides an overview of probiotics, prebiotics and synbiotics, increasingly popular ingredients that can be found in functional foods and dietary supplements.

Key words:

• Probiotics
• prebiotic
• synbiotics
• functional food ingredients