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Evaluation of the prebiotic potential of arabinoxylans from brewer’s spent grain

  • Applied microbial and cell physiology
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Abstract

Arabinoxylans (AX) consumption has been related to the treatment and prevention of cardiovascular diseases, type II diabetes, colorectal cancer and obesity. The beneficial health effects are conferred through gut microbiota modulation, and therefore, they have been proposed as potential slowly fermentable prebiotic candidates. As the mechanisms are not yet well understood, the prebiotic potential of AX from brewer’s spent grain (BSG) has been investigated. Two types of AX from BSG (AX1 and AX2) of different length and branching averages were fermented with human faecal inocula and compared to fermented cultures containing a commercial prebiotic (fructooligosaccharide (FOS)) and cultures with no added carbohydrate (control). Results demonstrated that the AX were extensively metabolised after 48 h of fermentation. The pH decreased along fermentation and the lowest value was achieved in AX1 cultures. The production of short chain fatty acids (SCFA) was higher in AX cultures than in cultures containing FOS and controls, with AX1 presenting the highest concentrations. The stimulatory effect of beneficial bacteria was higher in AX cultures, and AX2 presented the highest positive effect. Prebiotic potential of AX from BSG was confirmed by the production of SCFA and the modulation of gut microbiota, especially by the high increase in bifidobacteria populations.

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Acknowledgments

The authors wish to acknowledge the Irish Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine for their funding of this project (No. 08RDTAFRC665) under the Food Institutional Research Measure (FIRM). B. Gullón and P. Gullón are grateful to Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT) for the postdoctoral fellowships references SFRH/BPD/79941/2011 and SFRH/BPD/79942/2011. S. Ferreira was supported by FCT with the fellowship reference SFRH/BD/66857/2009 and co-financed by Fundo Social Europeu (FSE). Authors are also grateful to Xunta de Galicia for the financial support of this work (INBIOMED project), partially funded by FEDER “Unha maneira de facer Europa”.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Food Science and Environmental Health, College of Sciences and Health, Dublin Institute of Technology, Cathal Brugha St., Dublin 1, Ireland

    Sofia F. Reis & Nissreen Abu-Ghannam

  2. Centre for Biotechnology and Fine Chemistry (CBQF), Portuguese Catholic University, Rua Dr. António Bernardino de Almeida, 4200-072, Porto, Portugal

    Beatriz Gullón & Patricia Gullón

  3. CICS-UBI—Health Sciences Research Centre, University of Beira Interior, Avenida Infante D. Henrique, 6200-506, Covilhã, Portugal

    Susana Ferreira, Cláudio J. Maia & Fernanda C. Domingues

  4. Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Science, University of Vigo (Campus Ourense), As Lagoas, 32004, Ourense, Spain

    José L. Alonso

Authors
  1. Sofia F. Reis
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  2. Beatriz Gullón
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  3. Patricia Gullón
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  4. Susana Ferreira
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  5. Cláudio J. Maia
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  6. José L. Alonso
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  7. Fernanda C. Domingues
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  8. Nissreen Abu-Ghannam
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Correspondence to Nissreen Abu-Ghannam.

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Reis, S.F., Gullón, B., Gullón, P. et al. Evaluation of the prebiotic potential of arabinoxylans from brewer’s spent grain. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 98, 9365–9373 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-014-6009-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-014-6009-8

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