Probiotics and Prebiotics as Functional Foods: State of the Art

Mitigation of potentially toxic elements in food products by probiotic bacteria: A comprehensive review

Potentially toxic elements (PTEs) as non-degradable elements (especially carcinogenic types for humans such as lead (Pb), cadmium (Cd), mercury (Hg), and arsenic (As)) are widely distributed in the environment. They are one of the most concerned pollutants that can be absorbed and accumulated in the human body, primarily via contaminated water and foods. Acute or chronic poisoning of humans to PTEs can pose some serious risks for human health even at low concentrations. In this context, some methods are introduced to eliminate or reduce their concentration. While the biological treatment by bacterial strains, particularly probiotic bacteria, is considered as an effective method for reducing or eliminating of them. The consumption of probiotics as nonpathogenic microorganisms at regular and adequate dose offer some beneficial health impacts, it can also be applied to remove PTEs in both alive and non-alive states. This review aimed to provide an overview regarding the efficacy of different types of probiotic bacteria for PTEs removal from various environments such as food, water, in vitro, and in vivo conditions.

Bioactive molecules of probiotic bacteria and their mechanism of action: a review

The bacteria residing in the gut environment do play a pivotal role in metabolic activities of the host. The metabolites produced by these bacteria affect the physiology and health of the host. The gut bacteria are exposed to environmental conditions where multiple factors such as lifestyle, stress, antibiotics, host genetics and infections have an influence on them. In case of pathogenesis of a disease, the gut bacterial composition is altered which leads to a diseased state. This stage is due to colonization of bacterial pathogens in the gut environment. The pathological condition can be alleviated by administering probiotic strains into the gut environment. The probiotic strains produce therapeutic molecules such as amino acids, vitamins, bacteriocins, enzymes, immunomodulatory compounds and short-chain fatty acids. This review discusses recent evidences of the impact of bioactive molecules produced by probiotic bacteria and their mechanism of action in the gut environment to maintain homeostasis and health of the host without any effect on beneficial bacteria sharing the same niche. In addition, the manufacturing challenges of probiotic products for various applications are discussed here.

Prospecting prebiotics, innovative evaluation methods, and their health applications: a review

Prebiotics are necessary natural and synthetic food ingredients that help in the growth and development of gut microflora. There is a complex relationship between gut dysbiosis and microbes, so alteration in both probiotics and prebiotics can reduce illness of gut, which further plays a decisive role in human health. The prebiotic efficiency can be validated using various in vitro and in vivo experiments, and this gives an important insight to this field. This review focuses on these aspects including the standardized assessment of prebiotics and its metabolic products for customary applications. This review has also summarized the mechanism of their beneficial actions such as immunomodulation, nutrient absorption, pathogen inhibition, etc., and its significance in human nutrition. In addition to this, some fascinating applications of prebiotics in health-related disorders have also discussed, with current challenges in this facet.