A study on the development of prebiotic food products and their therapeuticproperties

Prebiotics are compounds in food that induce the growth or activity of beneficial microorganisms suchas bacteria and fungi. The most common example is in the gastrointestinal tract, where prebiotics canalter the composition of organisms in the gut microbiome. Dietary prebiotics are typically nondigestiblefiber compounds that pass undigested through the upper part of the gastrointestinal tract and stimulatethe growth or activity of advantageous bacteria in the colon by acting as substrates for them. They werefirst identified and named by Marcel Roberfroid in ۱۹۹۵. Depending on the jurisdiction, they may haveregulatory scrutiny as food additives for the health claims made for marketing purposes. Commonprebiotics used in food manufacturing include beta-glucan from oats and inulin from chicory root. Theinterest in studying the prebiotic effect of foods is increasing due to the way in which the consumptionof these foods influences the gut microbiota and how the metabolic activity of the microbiota affectsthe health and well‐being of the host. Several in vitro and in vivo studies have been developed toelucidate the prebiotic effect of foods, and particularly in in vivo studies, the physiological dynamics ofthis effect has been studied in healthy or diseased individuals. In this chapter, the main in vitro and invivo models developed for the study of the prebiotic potential of foods will be approached, which canbe used by those planning to advance in this field of research.

کلیدواژه ها:

functional food ، prebiotics ، chronic diseases ، animal models ، intestinal microbiota