12

Transcript

Hi! Welcome back. And this 2nd lecture of the 3rd week. Now what are prebiotics and who introduced this term ‘prebiotics’. This term was introduced by Gibson and Roberfroid, who exchanged the word ‘pro’ from the probiotics with the ‘pre’ which means before or for. And the prebiotic, it should be a nondigestible food ingredient. Should have beneficial effects, selective stimulation and finally improve the host health. If we go for the definition actually of this prebiotics; these are the non-digestible, but fermentable oligo-saccharides, that are specially designed to change the composition and activity of the intestinal microbiota with prospect to promote the health of the host. These are the non-digestible. They don’t contribute to the nutritive value of that food or food ingredient. They are non-digestible.

Then functions of prebiotics. What functions they perform?

• Prebiotics they maintain the optimal pH in the intestine, because pH is very important for the
  survival of the probiotics.
• And they stimulate immune system, because they enhance the growth or stimulate the growth
  of the probiotics.
• Then another function they perform, that they suppress the reproduction of the pathogens. If
  they suppress the reproduction of the pathogens, then they are not able to grow because they
  are harmful.
• They stimulate the peristalsis.
• They also reduce the formation of gases.
• And they stimulate the growth and reproduction of the useful microflora.
• As we have already discussed that these prebiotics are the food particularly for the probiotics.

Then what are the important criteria of prebiotic to say it is a good prebiotic. The classification criteria.

• First they should be resistant to upper gut tract.
• Then fermentation by the intestinal microbiota.
• Fermentation here, intestinal microbiota, it should be able to utilize the prebiotics.
• Then beneficial to the host health, definitely they will benefit if they are stimulating the growth
  of the probiotics.
• Then selective stimulation of the probiotics.
• Then stability to food processing treatments.

Food processing treatment here means any kind of heat treatment, cold treatment or any other kind of treatment. They should be stable to that kind of processing treatments. Then there are some commercial grade prebiotics. Food grade prebiotics that are available. That is Lactulose, FOS, that is fructo-oligosaccharide, galacto-oligosaccharide, isomalto-oligosaccharides, lacto-sucrose. Then xylooligosaccharides are also commercially available.

Then prebiotics, how they works, it’s very important to know their mechanism of action, how they works, how they promote the growth. These prebiotics what they did. They enhanced the formation of short chain fatty acids and lactic acid as a fermentation product. Another way they also enhance the growth of the probiotic bacteria. That is the prerequisite, if we say a particular ingredient as a prebiotic. It should have as we say the quality or the property; that it will definitely enhance the growth of the probiotics. And another way of working is that they increase the level of calcium and magnesium in the colon.

Now another term that is correlated. Synbiotic. Synbiotic is a combo word of probiotic and prebiotic. And ‘syn’ means synergistic one. They support the growth of the probiotics. Then this term used. Synbiotic term is used when a product contain both probiotics and prebiotics. And the example is bifidobacteria and FOS. Here this example shows that if we are using bifidobacteria species in any probiotic product. Oligosaccharides that is fructo-oligosaccharides, this FOS in combination with this bifidobacteria, it will support or enhance or stimulate the growth of the bifidobacteria. This is proved one. We are not going to take any kind of prebiotic which will not able to support the growth of probiotics. That is not a desirable characteristic. So definitely this combo is a perfect combo.

Then synbiotics, we know that these are the both prebiotics and probiotics combination and they will improve the survival of the probiotics during the passage through the gastro-intestinal tract. They also provide the health advantage from live microbes, that they may not ensure from the prebiotics alone. They also stimulate probiotic growth by prebiotic components. Then the we should be aware about, their mechanism of action. How they works and how they are useful. The synbiotics they should have the synergistic effect, that we have discussed earlier also. Synergistic means they should be supportive. They should support the growth of the probiotics. And they should be stimulate the growth and survival of the probiotic. If synergy will be there, definitely they will stimulate the growth. Then they should be able to prevent the AOM-induced suppression of the natural killer- cells activity in Peyer’s patches; that is a disease and in this they will express the production of natural killer-cells.

Then they should also be able to modify the composition of colonic bacteria ecosystem, which leads to alteration of the metabolic activity of the colon. Here you can see that prebiotics, probiotics and both things make synbiotics. Prebiotics in very simple language. It is very easy to remember also. Food for probiotic, probiotic live bacteria. These live bacteria need prebiotics as food. It’s very simple. And probiotics, the substances that can only be metabolized by the gut bacteria and utilized by them and these probiotics are the active bacterial culture. We are aware about this. Synbiotics, they are combination of both pro and pre. That is very clear.

Now it is very important to mention the differences between probiotics and prebiotics. Very prominent differences we can see here that prebiotics are defined as non-living as compared to probiotics, nondigestible and special forms of fiber or carbohydrates. Three aspects are important; non-living, nondigestible and special form of fiber or carbohydrates. But in case of probiotics they are live microorganisms. That when taken by the host they will definitely confer the health benefits. Second important aspect regarding prebiotics is they are in the powder form, and they can survive the heat, cold and acid. But it doesn’t happen in the case of probiotics. They are very fragile and very susceptible to the heat. They need a particular temperature for their maintenance to stay alive, to stay viable, and their number reduced over a period of time. Then third important difference, like prebiotics they perform their role, by nourishing the bacteria that live in the intestine. Very simple term, they nourish the probiotics. The probiotics they fight the harmful bacteria, that is called pathogens present in the gut and benefit the host.

So this is all about the differential features about the prebiotics, probiotics and synbiotics. And how they are useful to us. How they works, their mechanism of action and other parameters.

Thank You.