Weizmannia coagulans: an Ideal Probiotic for Gut Health

Abstract

Weizmannia coagulans (formerly Bacillus coagulans) is a spore-forming and lactic acid-producing bacterium. It has recently attracted much attention from researchers and food manufacturers due to its probiotic functions and stability in processing and storage. W. coagulans is capable of improving gut health through the regulation of gut microbiota, modulation of immunity, and improving digestibility and metabolism. Spores, germinated cells and metabolites of W. coagulans modulate the gut micro-environment and further affect other organs. W. coagulans is an environment-friendly probiotic since it can contribute to the host by reconstructing the balance of gut microbiota and only temporarily resides in the intestine after administration. W. coagulans has been generally recognized as safe (GRAS) by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), thus it is an ideal probiotic for improving gut health. The merit of its stability in processing and storage provides W. coagulans spores many possibilities for its use in various types of functional food. This review presents an overview of the characteristics of W. coagulans that make it an ideal probiotic candidate and highlights the proposed health benefits with scientific evidence conferred by the administration of W. coagulans.

Harnessing the dual nature of Bacillus (Weizmannia) coagulans for sustainable production of biomaterials and development of functional food

“…employed in functional foods formulations for the management of different intestinal disorders (Palanivelu et al., 2022 ), require freeze‐drying processes or powdered formulations, which have a detrimental effect on their viability. It is worth noting that most of the W. coagulans strains isolated so far exhibit thermal resistance and high survival rates in gastrointestinal traits (Zhang et al., 2024 ), thus enhancing its potential as a probiotic.…”

“…Coagulins belong to class II of bacteriocins, and their mechanism of action involves the integrity disruption of the target bacterial cell membrane (Soltani et al., 2021 ). W. coagulans strain I4 and L1208 were found to produce a plasmid‐linked antimicrobial peptide called coagulin active against foodborne bacteria (Cao et al., 2020 ; Contursi et al., 2014 ; Notomista et al., 2015 ; Zhang et al., 2024 ) (Figure 2 ).…”

Bacillus coagulans and Clostridium butyricum synergistically alleviate depression in a chronic unpredictable mild stress mouse model through altering gut microbiota and prefrontal cortex gene expression

“…During CUMS treatment, the three probiotic treatment groups received complex probiotics at 13 mg/kg (LOW), 52 mg/kg (MID), and 204 mg/kg (HIGH) once a day, which was determined by referring to the usage dose of B. coagulans in clinical trials (Zhang et al, 2023) and C. butyricum across murine models (Stoeva et al, 2021). The model group (CUMS) received the same volume of PBS, and the FLX group received fluoxetine 30 mg/kg once a day (Taguchi et al, 2016).…”

Blending Three Probiotics Alleviates Loperamide-Induced Constipation in Sprague-Dawley (SD)-Rats

“…It is influenced by changes in diet and psychological and social factors, often leading to chronic gastrointestinal issues ( Crowell et al, 2007 ). There is increasing interest in improving gastrointestinal disorders and alleviating fecal problems with probiotics ( Jung et al, 2022 ; Yu et al, 2017 ; Zhao et al, 2015 ), such as Bacillus and Lactobacillus , as they have shown beneficial effects in improving intestinal health, including constipation, bowel movements, and intestinal barrier function ( Rhayat et al, 2019 ; Zhang et al, 2024 ).…”