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Transcript

Hello welcome to week 3. I hope you have gone through the contents of 2nd week and 1st week, and you have gathered a very updated knowledge and information about the Functional Foods and Nutraceuticals. So let’s start with the 3rd week lecture. And 3rd week have very interesting content. And I came with lots of who, why and when. And basically this lecture is about the probiotics. So let’s start with the introductory part of probiotics.

Probiotics are the live micro-organisms that confer health benefits on the host while administered or taken in the adequate amount. And generally there are two species, that is lacto-bacillus and bifidobacterium. These two are grass species, generally recommended as safe; and mostly used as a probiotics. Now it is about the concept of the probiotics. Who introduced this term ‘probiotics’. And its origin is very interesting. A Russian scientist, that is a Nobel Prize winner, Elie Metchnikoff, a good microbiologist. He introduced this term ‘probiotics’, and he noticed that the people from Bulgaria, who are continuously taking the fermented foods; they have been reported with the good immunity and good gut micro-biota. So the term was introduced at the turn of the 20th century by the great scientist ElieMetchnikoff.

The word ‘probiotics’ originates, pro from Latin means for and bios is a Greek word, means life. In totality ‘for life’. And it was used in 1954 to indicate substances that were required for a healthy life-cycle. Now what are the probiotics. Which species we count. Which micro-organisms are probiotics. They are mainly two species. Lacto-bacillus species and Bifidobacterium species. And in Lacto-bacillus species, many strains are there, who are recommended as safe or grass strains like lacto-bacillus acidophilus, lactobacillus casei, lacto bacillus reuteri , lacto-bacillus bulgaricus, lacto-bacillus plantarum, and lacto-bacillus lactis also. In Bifidobacterium species; bifidobacerium bifidum, bifidobacterium longum, bifidobacterium infantis, bifidobacterium lactis and bifidobacterium adolescentis . These are the grass strains, and after so many tests have been conducted regarding their pathogenicity, safety. After that they have been declared as the safe strains, both lacto-bacillus and bifidobacterium species.

Now the ideal probiotic strains should have which kind of characteristics. To which strains we can say this is the ideal for using in the probiotic food. There are some characteristics or we can say, it should have some particular properties, like it should be known pathogenic or gras that is generally recommended as safe. Acid and bile tolerant and effective adhesion to the gut lining. This is a very essential characteristic we can say because if they adhere to the gut lining, only then they are able to multiply. And they will avoid the existence or interference of the pathogens that cause diseases. Then they should have the short generation time, and should able to survive the processing conditions like any kind of temperature, ph and other treatments. Then they should be anti-genotoxic property, genetically stable, and lactic acid producer. That all characteristics should be their in an ideal probiotic strain.

Then the probiotic attributes. Acid tolerance, bile tolerance and protoplast regeneration, anti-microbial activity. Because if they are able to produce some kind of anti-microbial, that inhibit the growth of the pathogens that is desired. Then gut colonization and lactose removal and the protease activity also. Then another question arises in everybody’s mind when you will go through the content or learn about the probiotic. Who need probiotics? Everyone can take probiotics or some special kind of persons, they need probiotic. The answer is that anybody can have probiotic. They are the food. There is no need of the recommendation. But the people who are suffering from the diahrrea and weak immunity system, they need them. Otherwise anybody can have the probiotics. The people suffering from infection, weak immunity system and respiratory allergies; they can have probiotics. And persons suffering from inflammatory bowel disorders, constipation and intestinal infections. Then probiotics are very useful.

Then another why that is came in my mind that. What is the difference between probiotic and antibiotic. Very simple answer like, probiotics till now you can understand what are the probiotics. Probiotics are the live microbes. And when we take probiotics, they will interfere, they will inhibit the growth of the pathogens and support the growth of the good ones. But antibiotics, they don’t know which one is the good, which one is the bad. When we’ll take antibiotics, they will kill all types of the microbiota. And due to disturbance of the microbiota of the gastro-intestinal tract; it will get destroyed and then it leads to the that is diarrhea and other problems. Like in case of antibiotics it will destroy the microflora; all the microflora and then problem of digestion will take place.

But probiotics they promote the growth of the beneficial gut microflora, and thereby enhancing the digestion and also improve the immunity overall. Then some prerequisites of the probiotics. They should be non-pathogenic, non-toxic, resistant to gastric acid, because they have to survive in the stomach; till to reach the target site, they should be able to adhere the gut epithelial tissues; just to make colonization to interfere the entry of the pathogens, and they should be resistant to the bile side, and they should also be resistant anti-microbial mechanisms that operates in the gut.

Now stability or the viability of the probiotics is a very important factor. Like because viability is important because they are live microbes, they are not in the form of powder, any kind of concentrate, they are live microbes. So stability and viability is a big concern. If we don’t maintain the particular temperature for their survival, their number will be decreased, and they will not provide us as much health benefit as required. So during fermentation, several factors affect the stability of the probiotics. Like composition of the medium. Composition of the medium is, it should have the nutrients enough for their survival like carbohydrates, proteins and fats. Only then they are able to survive during fermentation. Then physical conditions like temperature, pH and other factors. Then toxic bye-products and the presence of the oxygen also.

During downstream processing, extreme temperature conditions, oxygen stress and freezing and drying conditions are very important. Because if the temperature conditions or the temperature will be very extreme, then their ability will be affected. They are not able to survive at very high temperature. So these conditions affect the viability or stability of the probiotics. Then come to storage. After product development we come to the storage aspect. During storage, temperature is also important. Moisture conditions, oxygen stress and acidity of the carrier food, means in which food; it is a milk based food, a dairy based food or some known dairy food. What is the particular acidity of the food, that is important. And temperature; storage temperature is very very important here, because they are live microbes. If we will not maintain the low temperature, then thereby ability will be certainly affected. That is not desired. Then gastro-intestinal tract. In gastro-intestinal tract the acidity conditions of the stomach.Then enzymatic activity, composition of the environment and the amount of the secretion of the bile salt in the small intestine. These factors also affect the stability or the viability of the probiotics.

Then we should be aware like how these probiotics; we know that they are useful to us, we should take them. Then how they are useful? How they works? What happens when we have probiotics in our diet? What they did? This is called the mechanism of action of the probiotics. These probiotics works in many ways. Like many aspects are there. First aspect, that is very important is that they get colonization to the gut lining. Means when we take any probiotic food, the probiotic micro-organisms, they adhere to the membrane, and colonization will take place. And when pathogens will enter inside the body, they will not allow them to enter and inhibit their growth also. This is the one type of working or the mechanism of action of the probiotic. Secondly they compete with the nutrients also. They utilize the essential nutrients like proteins, fats which are required for the growth of the pathogens. And they exhaust and make that particular medium deficient, so that the pathogens, they pathogens can’t be able to utilize the nutrients. Then another important mechanism of working of the probiotics is that they produce some kind of inhibitory substances like hydrogen peroxide and bacteriosis. The hydrogen peroxide, it is very harmful. It will not allow the growth of the ecoli. Ecoli is the pathogen. And similarly they produce such kind of inhibitory substances; bacteriocines and other acids, which inhibit the growth of pathogens.

Then another important aspect or mechanism of action of the probiotics is they degrade the toxic receptors. Production of inhibitory substances we have discussed. Then they have the antigenotoxic effects. Then antimutagenic effects. And certainly they will compete for the nutrients, and make them unavailable to the pathogens. So this is all about the probiotics. Where they originate? Who introduced the term ‘probiotics’, how they are useful, how they work? And who should take probiotics. And what is the difference between this probiotics and anti-biotics.

Thank You.