PRE-BIOTICS

The concept of prebiotics which were first defined by Gibson-Roberfroid in 1995 as “non-digestible food ingredients that beneficially affect the gut by selectively stimulating the growth and activity of one or a limited number of bacteria in the colon, that can improve host health”.
The function of pre-biotics therefore is to specifically promote the growth and activity of desirable types i.e. Bifidobacteria and Lactobacilli are major contributors to these benefits which consequently produces a relative reduction in undesirable types such as E.coli, klebsiella, clostridium and Candida albicons. Probiotics have been found to inhibit intestinal bacterial enzymes involved in the synthesis of colonic carsinogens.
A characteristic of all pre-biotics is that they escape digestion in the small intestine and are fermented in the large intestine by the microflora. This produces predominantly lactate, acetic, propionic and butyric and also the gases of hydrogen, methane and carbon dioxide.
As classical prebiotic oligosaccharides added in food, human milk oligosaccharides stimulate the proliferation of bifidogenic microflora in breastfed children, but have also other important roles in the local intestine immune system. Presently, standard prebiotics are largely used depending on their putative positive action on the host’s health. For these reasons, this new class of food ingredients has been added to human and domestic animals foods. Concerning carbohydrates, the term prebiotic may be ambiguous a lot of saccharidic compounds are present in feeding with or without prebiotic action.
Prebiotic oligosaccharides are noncariogenic, nondigestible and low calorific compounds stimulating the growth and development of gastrointestinal microflora described as probiotic bacteria.