微生物および生化学技術ジャーナル

概要

The Benefits of Probiotics on Human Health

Ivonne Figueroa-González, Alma Cruz-Guerrero and Guillermo Quijano

Nowadays it is well established that there is a strong relation between diet and health. The concept of using probiotic microorganisms to prevent and treat a variety of human diseases has been used for more than 100 years. Recently, there has been an increase in research of probiotics which has led to significant advances in our understanding of those microorganisms. The importance of probiotics is meaningful because have both, an application on industrial product development and a beneficial effect in human health. In this regard, probiotic microorganisms have been widely added to yogurts and other fermented milks, which are leader products of functional foods comprising approximately 65% of the world functional food market. The action mode of probiotic microorganisms is likely to be multifactorial and seems to be specific for each strain. By modifying the intestinal microbiota, probiotics directly or indirectly influence the state of health through providing end-products of anaerobic fermentation such as vitamins, short chain acids and bacteriocins giving protection against enteric microorganisms. Likewise, probiotic has influence on local and systemic immune responses, improve lactose intolerance symptoms, also stimulates toxin elimination and have other beneficial effects that are not mediated by the intestinal microbiota. In this work, the benefits provided to human health by probiotic microorganisms as well as the mechanisms potentially employed are reviewed and discussed.