Efficiency of Amazonian tubers flours in modulating gut microbiota of male rats

Models to Evaluate the Prebiotic Potential of Foods

“…Generally, food or a substrate prebiotic extracted from the test food itself is lyophilized and supplemented in different concentrations to Man, Rogosa and Sharpe (MRS) medium; the negative control is represented by the MRS medium without the addition of the test food or substrate, and the positive control is represented by inulin [46,47] or fructooligosaccharide [17,48], which are recognized prebiotics. Frequently, experiments include the MRS medium with addition of glucose as the carbon source, which also serves as a control.…”

“…After media are defined, probiotic micro-organism strains such as Lactobacillus or Bifidobacterium are incubated and the samples are incubated under ideal conditions for the selected micro-organisms. Thereafter, viable cell counts and metabolism monitoring of these micro-organisms (quantification of short-chain fatty acids and pH, among other parameters) are performed to confirm the prebiotic property of the food [47,49]. SCFAs are saturated aliphatic organic acids that have from one to six carbon atoms, such as acetate (C2), propionate (C3), and butyrate (C4), and are the final products of bacterial fermentation processes.…”

“…In a study carried out by Sousa et al [52], yacon flour revealed a potential prebiotic activity in the growth of probiotic strains Enterococcus faecium 32, Bifidobacterium animalis Bo, L. acidophilus Ki, and L. casei L26, probably due to its content in FOS. Teixeira et al [47] evaluated the influence of Amazonian tubers Dioscorea trifida, Calathea allouia, and Dioscorea altissima on the growth of Lactobacillus acidophillus bacteria and observed that the best in vitro result was for D. trifida fiber, which stimulated the bacterial growth without significant difference from commercial inulin.…”

“…Usually, the animal models used for the study of gut microbiota are swine [62], zebrafish [63], and more widely in rodents such as rats [47], hamsters [64], and mice [53], especially when the potential prebiotic of foods is evaluated.…”

“…Teixeira et al [47] confirmed the prebiotic potential of Amazonian tubers by adding them to the diet of Wistar rats for 28 days, evaluating the pH and microbiota present in feces collected from the animals' caecum. Samal et al [65] evaluated the prebiotic potential of Jerusalem artichoke (Helianthus tuberosus L.) added at different concentrations to the diet of rats for 12 weeks and observed that the consumption promoted beneficial effects on immunity, intestinal morphometry, and hindgut fermentation of rats.…”