Mechanisms of Prebiotic Impact on Health

Abstract

Prebiotics were originally defined as non-digestible food ingredients that beneficially\raffect the host by selectively stimulating the growth and/or activities of\rone or a limited number of bacteria in the colon, thereby improving host health\r(Gibson and Roberfroid, 1995). However, a more recent definition is that\r‘‘A prebiotic is a selectively fermented ingredient that allows specific changes,\rboth in the composition and/or activity in the gastrointestinal microbiota that\rconfers benefits upon host wellbeing and health’’ (Gibson et al., 2004). The\rprincipal concept associated with both of these definitions is that the prebiotic\rhas a selective effect on the microbiota that results in an improvement in\rthe health of the host. Common prebiotics in use include inulins, fructooligosaccharides\r(FOS), galacto-oligosaccharides (GOS), soya-oligosaccharides,\rxylo-oligosaccharides, pyrodextrins, isomalto-oligosaccharides and lactulose.