Probiotics are live microorganisms that can be found in fermented foods and cultured milk, and are widely used for the preparation of infant food. They are well-known as "health friendly bacteria", which exhibit various health beneficial properties such as prevention of bowel diseases, improving the immune system, for lactose intolerance and intestinal microbial balance, exhibiting antihypercholesterolemic and antihypertensive effects, alleviation of postmenopausal disorders, and reducing traveller's diarrhoea. Recent studies have also been focused on their uses in treating skin and oral diseases. In addition to that, modulation of the gut-brain by probiotics has been suggested as a novel therapeutic solution for anxiety and depression. Thus, this review discusses on the current probiotics-based products in Malaysia, criteria for selection of probiotics, and evidences obtained from past studies on how probiotics have been used in preventing intestinal disorders via improving the immune system, acting as an antihypercholesterolemic factor, improving oral and dermal health, and performing as anti-anxiety and anti-depressive agents.

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This randomized, placebo-controlled, crossover and double-blind study investigates the effects of RLX2™ containing alpha-s1-casein tryptic hydrolysate and L-theanine in working adults affected by poor sleep quality. The supplement or placebo was randomly and blindly assigned to 39 subjects for four weeks and the changes in the subjective sleep assessment via the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), heart rate, blood pressure, salivary cortisol by high-performance liquid chromatography method and alpha power of awake electroencephalogram (EEG) were studied. The data were analyzed in two ways, by crossover and crossover summed up. The latter depicted that RLX2™ improved PSQI total score, sleep latency, sleep duration, sleep habitual efficiency, daytime dysfunction, and increased total and frontal alpha power significantly (p < 0.05). The supplement prolonged the total sleeping time by 45 min in the supplement receiving group compared to the placebo group (p < 0.001). However, only sleep duration and sleep habitual efficiency showed a profound effect in both analyses (p < 0.05). In conclusion, being given its beneficial effects without notable adverse events, it would be advantageous to use these nutraceutical ingredients to promote better sleep quality. Further studies with a larger number participants are warranted to support these findings.

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