prebiotic and...

Prebiotic and...

Prebiotic: A nondigestible food ingredient that benefits the host by selectively stimulating the favorable growth and/ or activity of 1 or more indigenous prebiotic bacteria. Prebiotics can modify the intestinal flora and interact with the immune system of the host against specific pathogens. However clinical trials are currently limited and a beneficial effect of prebiotic in treatment acute d...

Prebiotic developments

P rebiotics have been defined recently more as a concept then a functional ingredient group: ‘The selective stimulation of growth and/or activity(ies) of one or a limited number of microbial genus(era)/ species in the gut microbiota that confer(s) health benefits to the host’. This definition has in common with earlier definitions that modulation of microbiota composition and/or activity is its...

Probiotic, Prebiotic, and Brain Development

Recently, a number of studies have demonstrated the existence of a link between the emotional and cognitive centres of the brain and peripheral functions through the bi-directional interaction between the central nervous system and the enteric nervous system. Therefore, the use of bacteria as therapeutics has attracted much interest. Recent research has found that there are a variety of mechani...

Prebiotic Effects: Metabolic and Health

1. Professor Emeritus, Université Catholique de Louvain, Brussels, Belgium 11 2. Department of Food and Nutritional Sciences, School of Chemistry, Food Biosciences and Pharmacy, The 12 University of Reading, PO Box 226, Whiteknights, Reading RG6 6AP, UK 13 3. Unilever Food & Health Research Institute, Vlaardingen, The Netherlands 14 4. Department of Physiology and Biochemistry of Nutrition, Max...

Prebiotic metabolic networks?

A prebiotic origin of metabolism has been proposed as one of several scenarios for the origin of life. In their recent work, Ralser and colleagues (Keller et al, 2014) observe an enzyme-free, metabolism-like reaction network under conditions reproducing a possible prebiotic environment.

Metabolism and Nutrition: Probiotic and Prebiotic

Canthaxanthin (Cxn) is a fat-soluble red carotenoid pigment and is reported to be immunomodulatory. Broiler breeder hens were fed 0 ppm (Control), 6 ppm or 12 ppm Cxn to determine the effect of maternal dietary Cxn on chicks hatched from hens at 31 (Early), 45 (Mid) and 57 (Late) wk of age. Whole blood was obtained at 1 and 4 d of age to assess the number of cells able to engulf at least one Es...

Prebiotic chemistry themed issue