Along
the human alimentary tract, microorganisms occur with numerous numbers and
species which vary in its characteristic of in certain regions of the guts. The
human large intestine made out of caecum, ascending colon, transverse colon,
descending colon and rectum. The colon is capable of complex hydrolytic
digestive function through microflora which involves with breakdown of dietary
components such as complex carbohydrates and protein which could not undergo
digestion nor absorbed by upper digestive tract (Marfarlane, 1997).
The
intestinal bacteria can be classified into several types such as health
promoting, benign or potentially harmful activities in their host (Gibson and
Roberfoid, 1995). The common pathogens are E.coli
and clostridia which express pathogenic effects include diarrhoeal infection whereas its beneficial
aspects is by improving the digestion of essential nutrients. The majorities of
bacteria in the colon are anaerobes, therefore energy is derived from
fermentation of nondigestible carbohydrates (Macfarlane, 1999) such as non-digestible
oligosaccharide, plant fibres, resistant starches and non
starch polysaccharides and proteins that escape digestion in small intestine
(Marfarlane, 1992).
In
the large intestine, pathogen can exist as transient members or as part of the
resident flora According to Metchnikoff (1907), the putrefaction in the large
bowel and consumption of fermented milk was a progenitor due to the onset of senility
and shortening of life span which promoted gastrointestinal health (Gibson,
1997). Therefore, diet is the major source of growth of microflora in the
intestine. Due to these, the development of gut health market started to
developed and the concept of prebiotic, probiotic and fibre was developed to
promote and improve host health by influence the gut microbiota in a beneficial
manner.
The development of gut
health products comes in difference form such as in liquid form (milk), semi
liquid form (yoghurt), powder form, and capsulated form (supplements). The main
active ingredient of gut health products are probiotics, prebiotics,
symbiotics and fiber for
current market product development which help to counter gut-related diseases
such as constipation, irritable bowel diseases (IBD), Crohn’s diseases,
ulcerative colitis, and pouchitis.
1) Probiotics
Probiotics derived from
Greek and it means prolife which have a long history of health claims such as;
in Persian Old Testament stated “Abraham owed his longevity to the consumption
of sour milk.” “In 76 BC, Roman historian Plinius recommended that fermented
milk products for treating gastroenteritis.” (Bottazzi, 1983) Prebiotics is
defined as non-digestible food ingredient that beneficially affects the host by
stimulating the growth and activity of one or limited number of the intestinal
microflora in the colon and thus improving the host health which beneficially
by nature, namely bifidobacteria and lactobacilli. Probiotics act as a
complement to antibiotics which potentially in reducing the adverse effect of
pathogen such as anti-Helibacter and
improving eradication rate significantly (Canducci, 2000). Most probiotics are
usually grown in milk base substrate which acts as the major carriers for the
intake of probiotics available today. Probiotics food is increasingly gaining
its trend as preventive medicine with increase health care standard globally. The
global market of probiotics increased from $14.9 billion in 2007 to an
estimated $15.9 billion by end of 2008 and would reach $19.6 billion by 2013
with a rate (CAGR) of 4.3%.
Graph 1: Summary Figure shares of
global sales of probiotics by types from 2006 – 2013
Examples of probiotics products
i)
Yakult
It is a probiotic product which
contains live beneficial bacterial culture Lactobacillus
casei Shirota strain that been introduced into the fermented milk drinks.
There’s approximately 6.5 billion of Lactobacillus
casei Shirota strain in a single bottle of Yakult that proven to reach the
intestine alive and promotes guy health. It was first introduced in Australia
in 1994 which targeted as a product for all ages above 12 month.
Graph 2: Income Statement Evolution
of Yakult Honsha Co. from 2006 - 2014
There’s several studies
that were conducted on Lactobacillus casei
that proven its effect on gut health such as continuous ingestion of fermented
milk change in fecal microbiota (Yamagishi T, 1974), in randomized crossover
study the decrease of intestinal bacterial enzyme activity in feces (De Peter
V, 2007), suppression of toxic fermentation metabolites (De Peter V, 2004), and
modulation of the composition and metabolic activity (Styriak I, 2003) on
intestinal environment. There is research that found out that the survival of Lactobacillus casei in transit after
ingestion of fermented milk through the gastrointestinal tract (Yuki N, 1999).
ii)
Vaalia yoghurt
Yoghurt which contains active culture of Lactobacillus GG which combine with Acidophilus and Bifidus that promote digestive system. Vaalia products were first
introduced in Australia market in 1997 by Parmalat which enjoyed success as a
leading probiotic yoghurt and hit a sales of 1.6% by 2000. Lactobacillus GG is commercially available through Valio Ltd,
Finland as it the registered trademarks owned by Valio Ltd.
Lactobacillus rhamnosus
GG is one of the
several best known probiotic strain which commonly known as Lactobacillus GG (Gorbach SL, 1996) and
it was first commercial under Gefilus brand which launched in Finland in 1990 (Salminen,
1991) and having highest annual local per capita consumption in the world
(Saxelin, 2007). Lactobacillus GG have robust characteristic and survival capability
of strain which storage stability in refrigerated in yoghurt was stable without
any decline in viability (Donkor, 2007). Lactobacillus
GG has the ability to increase lactobacilli and bifidobacteria, formation
of short chain fatty acids, lowering activity of procarinogenic enzymes, and
improving mucosal barrier (Saxelin, 1997).
iii)
Nutrition Now PB 8
PB8 Probiotic Acidophilus was first introduced in 1975 in Washington DC and it is one of the best-selling probiotic
Acidophilus that keep digestive system functioning in a healthy manner which
contain eight powerful probiotic strains includes Lactobacillus plantarum,
Bifidobacterium bifidum, Lactobacillus rhamnonsus, Lactobacillus acidophilus, Lactobacillus
paracasei, Lactobacillus salivarius Lactobacillus
casei, and Bifidobacterium longum.
1.1
Future trends on probiotics
Functional dairy products clearly possess outstanding result and exhibit
high potential to improve intestinal health and immune system. Healthy food
such as milk and other dairy products capable to act as a growth medium for
probiotics such as lactobacilli strains have established evidence for the
shortening effect of acute diarrhea duration. However, development of
probiotics products requires to go through varies health claims for food product;
therefore it heavy relies on the heavy documentation and registration claims
which could affect food companies. It could be a cause that reduces interest of
companies to involve into such development. Risk reduction claim will be accepted by EU in
future will certainly increase the interest of food companies and this could
perhaps reduce the risk of acute diarrhea symptoms.
On top of that, other major intestinal disturbances such as irritable
bowel syndrome (IBS) are interest to many dairy food producers, however
insufficient proof that could identified such as studies on L. plantarum on IBS shown reduction in abdominal
pain (Niedzielin, 2001), however in other study such as (Sen, 2002) doesn’t
show significant improvement of symptoms. Besides that, L. rhamnosus GG had been clinically investigated resulting less
diarrhea but no other improvements could be observed (O’ Sullivan and O’Morain,
2000). Therefore more understanding and studies of the origin of the symptoms
would certainly help in development of effective treatment and prevention agent
such as probiotics.
Probiotics could be taken to specific or combination of strain to be
taken for further studies in order to arise a better product development and
effective treatment on gut related diseases with regards to other factor such
as lactose intolerance; a concept of lactose-free dairy product will be more
readily accepted than those with normal lactose level. The significant
differences exist not only between probiotic bacterial species but also between
strains. On top of that, specific interactions between host immune cells, microbe-microbe
interaction and probiotic bacteria exist which leads to varies result from
clinical trial such as in (Shanahan, 2003, 2004) on determination of optimal
dosage and development of reliable in vivo
survival of probiotic. Therefore, the use of designer probiotics could offer
new possibilities for more targeted delivery of anti-inflammatory molecules to inflamed
mucosa to reduce the severity of IBD patients.
2) Prebiotics
Prebiotic is defines as
a “non digestible food ingredient that beneficially affects the host by selectively
stimulating the growth and/or activity of one or a limited number of bacteria
in the colon thus improves host health” (Gibson and Robertfroid, 1995). Most
prebiotics are carbohydrates/oligosaccharides which could not undergo digestion
in upper gastrointestinal tract but capable to be transfer to colon and are
selectively metabolized by the bacterial flora. In the colon, prebiotics acts
as dietary bulking that make up a percentage of the available substrates for
colonic bacteria, consequently decrease the pH and production of short chain
fatty-acid lead to reduction of pathogenic microorganisms. Prebiotics are
mainly soluble fibres which come in many forms of dietary fibre exhibit some
level of prebiotic effects. Example of prebiotics is inulin
(fructooligosaccharide), galactooligosaccharide, and lactulose, which have
been widely used in food industry.
The use of
oligosaccharides to affect increase in gut bacteria seen as beneficial has been
in existence in Japan for many years, however was first coined in mid 1990s
(Gibson and Robertfroid, 1995). This arises to increased understanding of
prebiotics to target indigenous beneficial bacteria in the gut by using
nonviable food ingredients to promote gut health. Some prebiotics can also improve food quality
characteristic such as textural and mouth feel aspects and acts as low calorie
fat replacers. In order to classify prebiotics as a food ingredient, several
aspects taken into consideration such as ability to resist gastric acidity,
fermentation by intestinal microflora and selective stimulation of growth and
activity of intestinal bacteria.
On top of that, dietary
fibres are candidate prebiotics however proven that oligosaccharides display
most effective and its ability to confer selectively to target bacterial
species.
Frost & Sullivan estimates Europe’s
prebiotic market revenue at the end of 2006 at USD 3.65 billion and predict
that revenue will increase to USD 5.72 billion by 2014.
Examples of prebiotics
products
i)
preB (Prebiotics) liquid
preB is a prebiotic that consist of fully natural
symphony of nutrients over a range of 50fruits, nuts, seed, vegetables and
herbs with its revolutionary fermentation based on time-honored traditions.
preB helps to improved skin texture and color, regulate bowel, stronger immune system,
to weight loss. The consumption of preB on a regular basis helps to regularize the
intestine of the body to naturally require additional macrobiotic foods.
Macrobiotic foods provide not only the body, but also the soul with nutrients. It’s is selling at
$39.99 for a 240ml bottle. PreB have an
ORAC value (Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity) of 78.82 u/g and it have been
tested on effect on meat, noodle, soup, rice, and even microbes such as E.Coli
and Salmonella.
ii)
Prebiotin Prebiotic Fiber
Prebiotin Prebiotic Fiber supplements
consist of oligofrustose-enriched-inulin (OEI) which nourishes beneficial
bacteria and also most researched prebiotic. It come in a 240gram for 60
servings which is have benefit such as increase calcium absorption, bone
density, colon bacteria, enchance immune system, and improve bowel regularity.
It’s selling at $39.99 in the market.
2.1Future trend of
prebiotics
Prebiotics
market is growing across the years and developments on prebiotics have expanded
such as methodology of investigating functionality especially in microflora
compositional changes to fermentation. Based on the current research and literatures,
mainly researches performed on pure cultures, however the strain selected could
not be considered as representative of the colonic microbiota while some
studies couldn’t establish that test substrate is selectively metabolized,
therefore more in vitro method of
studying prebiotic oligosaccharides such as mixed culture should be performed.
The use of mixed culture (faecal inocula) could provide a more representative
event in distal colon. However, the use of faeces has a problem with its species
present and identification of genera.
On
top of that, the development of molecular microbiology techniques, the usage of
molecular-based methods of bacteria identification have upper hand over
culture-based technologies which they could provide more reliability and
encompass more microflora diversity therefore it could help to identify more definitive
information on the species rather than just the genera that influenced by the carbohydrates test.
The
current market approach for prebiotics is dominated by human uses in particular
those that susceptible to gut infection such as elderly, infant, and physically
weak peoples. Moreover, the expansion of activities into microbial ecosystems
also promotes application such as skin care, urinary tract, and non-human
application. However, the usage in animal application such as companion pet
which improved gastrointestinal health and reduced faecal odour. It could also
be implementing into agriculture aspects such as increase growth yield and feed
conversion, improved digestion and absorption of livestock, increase the
quality of milk and egg and carcass quality. Besides that, prebiotic food
market could be targeted to a wide range such as bakery products,
confectionary, savoury product, supplements and many more.
In
order for such further application, clinical trials should be conducted to
determine the value of prebiotic in managing gut mediated disorders as such of
the quantifiable index to compare efficacy (Vulvevic, 2004),moreover, human
trials are required to prove the effect and identify the health promoting
activities and mechanism behind.
3) Fiber
Dietary fiber
consumption have been consumed since 4th Century BCE which lead to
changes of human diet from plant based non purified regimen to cereal based
purified diets. It health benefit with dietary fiber was describe by
Hippocrates regards to its laxative effect of the coarseness of cereal grains
(Burkitt, 1986). Dietary fiber defined as plant substrates that couldn’t
undergo digestion by human enzymes by its properties to resist the action of
endogenous human enzymes in small intestine. It composed of both soluble and
non-soluble fiber, which research shown regular consumption lead to health
benefits as well obtaining essential amino acid, vitamins, mineral and
essential fatty acid. Soluble fibers play its roles in lowering blood
cholesterol and regulation of blood glucose (Eastwood, 1984). It is defined as
fermentable fibers which its edible part of the plants or similar carbohydrates
which resistant to digestion and absorption in human small intestine with
complete or partial fermentation in large intestine (Heaton, 1983) which yield
short chain fatty acid which help regulate immune response and improve colonic environment (Lupton, 1993).
Insoluble fiber has water-attracting ability that helps to increase bulk,
reduce transit time in gut and soften stools.
Example of dietary
fiber is inulin, pectin, polydextrose, cellulose, resistant starches, and fruit
fibers. Dietary fiber market is still a growing and expanding field with
different methodology and food-related products been closely associated with
dietary fiber as it is one of the main food components that capable of regulate
gut health. Dietary fiber has been fortified into food, cereal and even
supplements.
Table 1: Type of Fiber and its source
Component
|
Source
|
Cellulose
|
All plant sources
|
Hemicellulose
|
All plant source except cereal bran
|
Pectin
|
Mainly fruit
|
Lignin
|
Mainly cereals
|
Example of dietary
fiber products
i)
Benefiber Powder
Benefiber contain natural soluble fiber which is wheat
dextrin which is taste-free, sugar free and readily dissolve in beverages and
foods. It contains less than 20ppm of gluten. It’s marketed as $17.69 for 350g
100 serving. It comes with 4 different types such as original, orange
flavoured, plus calcium, and plus heart health.
Dextrin consider as a low digestible carbohydrates and
soluble dietary fiber which shows impressive digestive tolerance and fully
compatible with beneficial changes in gut. Dextrin products are stable in high
temperature processing condition such as UHT treatment and sterilization and
stable in acidic condition such as in fruit and vegetables. Dextrin is recognized
by Australia New Zealand Food Standard as soluble dietary fiber (Food Standard
Australia New Zealand) and prepared conventional maize or wheat which is sugar free due to the composition of 0.1%- 0.2% of sucrose
ii)
Now Inulin
Now Organic Inulin is made out of
fructooligosaccharide which acts as prebiotic that stimulate the growth of
intestinal microflora bacteria which promote colon health and regulate bowel.
On top of that, it has low glycemic index which suitable for all ranges ages
and people which could be added into food and beverages. It is selling at $6.75
for 220g per bottle.
Inulin is a fructan; non-digestible carbohydrate that
naturally exist in plants such as wheat, chicory and leeks. Inulin could
improve mouth feel and taste on food and improve organoleptic characteristic
which promote gut health, reduce risk of colonic diseases risk and capable of
modulating of lipid and sugar metabolism. Inulin usually extracted from chicory
and native inulin is slightly sweet whereas long-chain inulin has no sweetness
(Franck, 1993).
3.1 Future trends of dietary fiber
Traditionally, dietary fiber is obtain mainly from
main part of plant such as seed, roots, tubers and leaves which comprise of
non-starch polymer such as hemicellulose, cellulose, lignin and pectin which is
rich in carbohydrates, fat and protein to achieve the need of human diet,
however the selection of fiber is limited due to its sensory reason and
stability (Meuser, 2001). Therefore, in future trends of dietary fiber should
change its source to fruit fiber rather than plant fiber as fruit is available
in abundant quantities and have less by product from processing whilst its
residue is dried products which can undergo more extensive process.
In interest of fruit fiber, fruit could undergo
ripening process which would lead to degradation of cell wall (softening) that
is sensitive to microbiological spoilage and over-softening of fruits will be
economically not profitable. In order to counter this issue, drying processes
would be essential after fruit processing to ensure low water activity to
reduce the microbes growth and addition of water binding agents to bind of
water molecule in order for longer storage life.
On
top of that, composition of fruits are mainly waters and its low in fat which
it play an crucial role in healthy life style diet and its rich in minerals and
vitamin which could a secondary to plant fiber. Studies have proven that fruit
fibers does promote gut health and its
dietary fiber content such as dietary fiber of fruit protect against laryngeal
cancel (Pelucchi,2003) and proven to reduce heart disease risk (Pereira, 2004).
The
current challenge on fiber for food industry is difficulty to provide
informative data and clinical trial to validate health benefit of dietary fibre
due to lack of understanding on structure function of dietary fiber to health
condition. Therefore, establishment in understanding of physiological effect of
different classes of polysaccharide is crucial by identify the right
methodology to isolate pure structure of polysaccharide and subjecting it to
clinical trial to determine its health benefit.
Conclusion
Concept
of functional food and nutraceutical product has increased sharply during this
20-25yeass which offer huge possibility and challenges to food industry to
improve nutritional properties of food and products and designing new
methodology to improve and design new food and product to promote health. One
of the major growing market are gut health, where taken into consideration as
gut-related disease started to cause severity to human health which have become
one of the targeted component. There are several ways to improve gut health and
immune protection such as consumption of nutraceutical products and functional
food such as prebiotics, probiotics and fiber which have properties and
capacity of bowel regulation and improve immune system. Clearly that, gut
health market is expanding rapidly across the years and new methodology is
developed to produce more convenience and rich product to help overcome varies
gut-related disease. Product variation varies from native plant or fruits to
processed supplement and fortified to food. The development of market of gut
health still one of the leading market which people taken into account of its
importance in contribution to healthy lifestyle.
