Fermented Traditional Probiotic Beverages of Turkish Origin: A Concise Review

Abstract

ABSTRACT: The fact that foods can provide additional medicinal health benefits beyond basic energy requirements and nutritional needs for survival, has been proven through rigorous scientific researches over the years. Although Turkey is historically believed to be the ancient origin of a decent number of fermented probiotic foods and beverages, there is still little awareness amongst the overall populace regarding the usefulness of these medicinal products also known as functional foods. Hence, the current review article discusses probiotics as a top notch variety of functional foods and encapsulates their history as well as some proven beneficial effects of some known probiotic microorganisms on human health. More importantly, greater emphasis is placed on elucidating scientific data on seven fermented traditional probiotic beverages of Turkish origin namely boza, kefir, ayran, shalgam, hardaliye, koumiss and gilaburu juice. The paper concisely describes their main characteristics, probiotic microbiota composition, production techniques as well as nutritional properties and some potential health benefits derivable from their consumption.