Review article
Probiotic Concept - Probiotics as Food Supplements and Probiotics as Biotherapeutics
Jagoda Šušković
orcid.org/0000-0003-1711-316X
; Faculty of Food Technology and Biotechnology, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
Blaženka Kos
; Faculty of Food Technology and Biotechnology, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
Jadranka Frece
; Faculty of Food Technology and Biotechnology, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
Jasna Beganović
; Faculty of Food Technology and Biotechnology, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
Andreja Leboš Pavunc
; Faculty of Food Technology and Biotechnology, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
World health crises, especially in a prevention of infective diseases and as result of the wide spread of antibiotic resistance and the number of chronic diseases that disturb human health, has lead, already in the 1980s, to the establishment of the functional food concept (FOSHU Food for specifi ed health use) in Japan. Hence, the food is defi ned as functional “ if it contains a food component (whether a nutrient or not) which affects one or a limited number of function(s) in the body in a targeted way so as to have positive effects”. Target place of action of probiotics, prebiotics or synbiotics, as functional food supplements, is gastrointestinal tract. Gastrointestinal tract represents the largest immune organ in our body with an active space of approximately 300 m2 and it contains a complex microbial ecosystem (gut microfl ora) with a total weight of 1.2 kg. Such a complex microbial biomass and it metabolic activity can have positive but also negative infl uence on human health. The balance of gut microfl ora is dynamic and could be disturbed by the infl uence of different factors like ageing processes, healing, stress, diet, and many other environmental factors. Probiotic, prebiotic and synbiotic concept imply the reestablishment of the disturbed gut microfl ora and direction of it metabolism to the production of bioactive metabolites benefi cial for health. The promising results of a first generation of probiotics offer new generation of probiotics (biotherapeutics) that will often contain mixture of probiotic strains with complementary characteristics, tailormade for different gastrointestinal and urogenital diseases, or as delivery systems for vaccines, immunoglobulins and other protein based therapies.
In this paper the review of the published results of the investigations, performed in the Laboratory of Antibiotic, Enzyme, Probiotic and Starter Culture Technology at Faculty of Food Technology and Biotechnology University of Zagreb, are presented.
Keywords
probiotics; biotherapeutics; gut microflora
Hrčak ID:
49962
URI
Publication date:
30.12.2009.
Visits: 4.979 *