The influence of antibiotic exposure in the early postnatal period on the development of intestinal microbiota was monitored in 26 infants including five antibiotic-treated (AT) subjects orally administered a broad-spectrum antibiotic for the first 4 days of life and three caesarean-delivered (CD) subjects whose mothers were intravenously injected by the similar type of antibiotics in the same period. The faecal bacterial composition was analysed daily for the first 5 days and monthly for the first 2 months. Terminal restriction fragment length polymorphisms in the AT subjects showed less diversity with the attenuation of the colonization of some bacterial groups, especially in Bifidobacterium and unusual colonization of Enterococcus in the first week than the control antibiotic-free infants (AF, n = 18). Quantitative real-time PCR showed overgrowth of enterococci (day 3, P = 0.01; day 5, P = 0.003; month 1, P = 0.01) and arrested growth of Bifidobacterium (day 3, P = 0.03) in the AT group. Furthermore, after 1 month, the Enterobacteriaceae population was markedly higher in the AT group than in the AF group (month 1, P = 0.02; month 2, P = 0.02). CD infants sustained similar, although relatively weaker, alteration in the developing microbiota. These results indicate that antibiotic exposure at the beginning of life greatly influences the development of neonatal intestinal microbiota.

The bacterial compositions of feces were monitored in the first 2 months for 15 infants born in Japan, including eight subjects who developed allergy by the age of 2 years. Primer sets targeting six predominant bacterial groups in the infant intestine, Bacteroidaceae, Enterobacteriaceae, bifidobacteria, enterococci, lactobacilli, and the Clostridium perfringens group, were used for real-time PCR to quantitate each population in the feces. The population of Bacteroidaceae was significantly higher in the allergic group at the ages of 1 month (P=0.03) and 2 months (P=0.05) than in the non-allergic group, while no statistically significant difference was observed for the other bacterial populations.

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Some physicochemical and rheological properties of jackfruit seed flour and starch, isolated from the flour were investigated. The flour had good capacities for water absorption (205%) and oil absorption (93%). Substitution of wheat flour with the seed flour, at the level of 5, 10 and 20% markedly reduced the gluten strength of the mixed dough. The Brabender amylogram (6% concentration, db) of seed starch showed that its pasting temperature was 81 °C and its viscosity was moderate, remained constant during a heating cycle and retrograded slightly on cooling. The starch showed an A-typed X-ray powder diffraction pattern.