Resumo

MELENDEZ RENTERIA, Norma Paola; AGUILAR, Cristóbal Noé; NEVAREZ MOORILLON, Guadalupe Virginia  e  RODRIGUEZ HERRERA, Raúl. Prebiotic compounds: from molecules to human beings. Rev. Soc. Ven. Microbiol. [online]. 2011, vol.31, n.1, pp.6-12. ISSN 1315-2556.

According to the definition given by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), prebiotics are non live components of food that grant a health benefit to the host, associated with the modulation the intestinal microbiota. Prebiotic compounds include, among others, oligosaccharides (fructooligosaccharides, galactooligosaccharides, xylooligosaccharides, pecticooligosaccharides), lactosaccharose, sugar-alcohols, glucooligosccharides, levans or fructans, resistant starch, and xylosaccharides. The recovery, synthesis and/or purification processes are specific for each group. Microflora metabolism produces formation of gases such as H₂, CO₂ and CH₄, and organic compounds (short chain fatty acids and ethanol) as products of prebiotic fermentation. The effects on the health of the consumer produced by the action of the prebiotics can be manifested locally, as by an increase of fecal mass, colon absorption of some minerals, and folic acid synthesis. They can also be observed systemically, as by a decrease of cholesterol, triglycerides, ammonium, and urea, among other activities. One of the applications with the greatest potential in the study of pre and probiotics is the formulation of symbiotic food; probiotics also promise to fulfill the present needs of comsumers, who demand functional food.

Palavras-chave : symbiotic food; oligosaccharides; prebiotics; probiotics.