Recent findings in production and health benefits of prebiotics: a review of literatures

Prebiotics are known as fermented ingredients with specific health benefits. The two main fermentative substrates of dietary origin are non-digestible carbohydrates and proteins, which escape digestion in the small intestine. Beside traditional protocols for production of prebiotics, there are some commercial advanced methods for the mass production of prebiotics with acceptable health effects. On the other hand, different types of nondigestible oligosaccharides (NDO) are used in the food and drug industries as functional foods and nutraceuticals due to their prebiotic effects and also immunomodulation results (ex. SCFA modulate chemokine expression in the intestinal epithelial cells). Prebiotics with novel and various health benefits suggest a bright future for improving the public health.