Probiotics, their health benefits and applications for developing healthier foods: a review

Abstract

In the industrialized world, functional foods have become a part of an everyday diet and are demonstrated to offer potential health benefits beyond the widely accepted nutritional effects. Currently, the most important and frequently used functional food compounds are probiotics and prebiotics, or they are collectively known as 'synbiotics'. Moreover, with an already healthy image, dairy products appear to be an excellent mean for inventing nutritious foods. Such probiotic dairy foods beneficially affect the host by improving survival and implantation of live microbial dietary supplements in the gastrointestinal flora, by selectively stimulating the growth or activating the catabolism of one or a limited number of health-promoting bacteria in the intestinal tract, and by improving the gastrointestinal tract's microbial balance. Hence, the paper reviews the current scenario of probiotics and their prospective potential applications for functional foods for better health and nutrition of the society.

Isolation and Probiotic Potential of Lactobacillus Salivarius and Pediococcus Pentosaceus in Specific Pathogen Free Chickens

“…Promising probiotic strains should have some superior biological properties, especially improving growth performance, intestinal microbiota balance, and meat quality, and decreasing noxious gas emission (Meng et al, 2010;Fan et al, 2013;Jeong et al, 2014;Peng et al, 2016). These have become essential indicators for evaluating the potential of food biopreservatives or probiotic additives in humans and animals (Kabir et al, 2004;Biagi et al, 2007;Nagpal et al, 2012;Mookiah et al, 2014;Altaher et al, 2015;Peng et al, 2016;Bai et al, 2017). Therefore, there is growing interest in the isolation of potentially successful probiotic strains and determination of their functional characteristics.…”

Antioxidant property of synbiotic combination of Lactobacillus sp. and wheat bran xylo-oligosaccharides

“…Probiotics, most notably lactobacilli and bifidobacteria are being extensively studied for their ability to positively influence the host gut by producing metabolites with bioactive properties and have been reported to possess an array of health promoting properties (Nagpal et al 2012).…”

Bioengineered probiotics, a strategic approach to control enteric infections

“…These include lactose metabolism, improved digestion, increased nutritional value, production of antimicrobial factors, antimycotic effects, anti-carcinogenic properties, immunologic enhancement, production of short-chain fatty acids, antiatherogenic, and cholesterol-lowering attributes, regulatory role in allergy, protection against vaginal or urinary tract infections, maintenance of epithelial integrity and barrier, stimulation of repair mechanism in cells, and maintenance and reestablishment of a well-balanced indigenous intestinal, respiratory, and urogenital microbial communities. 10,[21][22][23][24] 43 A bacteriocin (Microcin S) producing probiotic Escherichia coli G3/10 also suppressed EPEC adherence and pathogenesis. 44 …”