There's evidence to suggest that probiotics, prebiotics, and a high-fiber diet can help mange various illnesses. Here's how to translate gut flora research into practice.

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.

It is becoming increasingly clear that the community of microorganisms living in the mammalian gut (the gut microbiota) exerts a significant influence on brain function. Evidence suggests that the microbiota plays a role in anxiety and anxiety-like behavior in animal models. Several studies have demonstrated reduced anxiety-like behavior with administration of probiotics (live bacteria with kno...

BACKGROUND Probiotics and prebiotics are promising strategies to counteract Salmonella prevalence in swine. In the present study, we investigated the effects of prebiotics (fructo- (FOS), galacto- (GOS) and mannan- (MOS) oligosaccharides) and the bacteriocinogenic Bifidobacterium thermophilum RBL67 (RBL67) on Salmonella enterica subsp. enterica serovar Typhimurium N-15 (N-15) colonization using...

A stereochemical study of a potentially prebiotic peptide-forming reaction was carried out as the first part of a systems chemistry investigation of potential paths for symmetry breaking. Substantial diastereomeric excesses result from a fast epimerization of the 5(4H)-oxazolone intermediate in aqueous solution.

Lactobacillus casei ASCC 292 was grown in the presence of six prebiotics, namely, sorbitol, mannitol, maltodextrin, high-amylose maize, fructooligosaccharide (FOS), and inulin, in order to determine the combination of probiotic and prebiotics that would remove the highest level of cholesterol. A first-order model showed that the combination of L. casei ASCC 292, FOS, and maltodextrin was the mo...

Treatment options for irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) are notoriously either inadequate (IBS) or loaded with potentially serious side effects and risks (IBD). In recent years, a growing interest in effective and safer alternatives has focused on the potential role of probiotics and their metabolic substrates, prebiotics. It is in fact conceivable that the mic...