1Vojislav N. Peri{i},
2Ilija Medi}
Basic aspects of pre-, pro- and synbiotics
Address correspondence to:
Professor Dr Vojislav N. Perisic, PhD, FRCPCH
Paediatric Department, Crawley General Hospital
Crawley, West Sussex RH1 DH
United Kingdom
Gastroenterolo{ka sekcija SLD-
01754, 2003.
Nutrition and gastrointestinal tract
Ishrana i gastrointestinalni trakt
1University Children’s Hospital, Belgrade, Serbia,
2"Neofarmis", Belgrade, Serbia
ARCH GASTROENTEROHEPATOL 2003; 22 ( No 3 - 4 ): 65 - 72
Minisymposium on functional food
Basic aspects of pre-,
pro- and synbiotics
Bazi~na razmatranja o pre-, pro-
i simbioticima
(accepted December 22th, 2003)
Digestion depends on two principally different, but equal-
ly powerfull, digestive systems (1). The first one is the system
of digestive enzymes at all levels of the gastrointestinal tract
(GI) provided by GI secretions: saliva, gastric secretion, bile,
pancreatic secretion, small intestinal and colonic secretions
(2). Beside digestive role, these secretions provide a large
number of important factors necessary for GI immune and
infection control, such as immunoglobulins, lactoferin,
lysosyme, fibronectin etc. (2). They are rich in mucin, which
has an important role as a matrix substance, protection for the
flora, substrate for for fermentation and nutrition for the bac-
teria (2). Saliva is rich in epidermal growth factor. Elimination
of salivary glands leads to GI ulcers, poor wound healing, and
reduced regeneration of organs such as the liver (3). It is there-
fore of great importance that GI secretions are
stimulated/uninterrupted in particular in the very sick and crit-
ically ill patients (3).
The second digestive system is based on 2kg of bacteria in
the gut, mainly located in the colon constituting 60% of fae-
cal mass (4,5). The scarcity of bacteria in the upper GI is
caused by composition of the luminal medium (gastric acid,
bile, pancreatic secretion), which kills most ingested bacteria,
and because of the propulsive motor activity toward the ileum,
which prevent stable colonisation of bacteria in the lumen (2).
Bacteria harboured in the large bowel break down com-
plex food ingredients, non-digestible by the enzymes of GI
secretions, which reach colon untouched (6). Substrate avail-
ability in the human adult colon is about 20-60gr of carbohy-
drates and 5-20gr of proteins/24h (1,4,5,6). In the caecum and
right colon, fermentation is very intensive with production of
Abstract
The concept of functional food encompass the nutrition wich contains appropriate sorts and quantities
of prebiotics and probiotics. Prebiotics are plant, fruit and vegetable oligosaccharides which promote
colonic colonisation and growth of beneficial, probiotic microorganisms. Probiotic microorganisms,
bacteria and yeasts, have several important functions. Beside suppressing the proliferation of harrasing
enteral microbes, they provide epithelial cells with important energy nutrients (short chain fatty acids),
exert antiproliferative effect, synthetised antioxidants, neutralise toxins etc. Beside health promoting
ability, probiotics can be used as part of the treatment of variety of clinical conditions from acute gas-
troenteritis to serious surgical conditions.
Key Words:
prebiotics,
probiotics,
synbiotics.
Sa`etak
Koncept funkcionalne hrane podrazumeva ishranu koja se sastoji od odgovarajuce vrste i kolicine prebi-
otika i probiotika. Probiotici su oligosaharidi biljaka, voca, i povrca koji promovisu kolonizaciju debelog
creva prebiotskim mikroorganizmima. Prebiotski mikroorganizmi, bakterije i kvasnice, imaju vise znaca-
jnih uloga. Pored suzbijanja prerastanja potencijalno ugrozavajuce flore, oni obezbedjuju epitelijalnim celi-
jama energetske nutrijente (masne kiseline kratkih lanaca), imaju antiproliferativni efekat, sintetisu antiok-
sidante, neutralisu tokside itd. Pored korisnih dejstava na telesno zdravlje, probiotici se koriste u lecenju
razlicitih bolesti pocevsi od akutnog gastreoenteritisa pa do ozbiljnih hirurskih stanja.
Klju~ne re~i:
prebiotici,
probiotici,
simbiotici.
