12. Manno-oligosaccharides as Prebiotic-Valued Products from Agro-waste

Agriculture is the backbone of Indian economy, is carried out for primary products where a significant amount of agro-waste is produced. About 72% of fruits and vegetable production in India goes waste, due to their processing variability which meets about 1.4% of the total global trade. Therefore, the agro-waste utilization for human benefit is the major concern for environmental sustainability. Such waste can be effectively used for the production of useful compounds for animals and human beings. Lignocellulosic agro-waste has been explored for the production of energy as biofuels. Such biomass can also be considered to be useful for the production of prebiotic oligosaccharides. Different agro-wastes such as copra meal, potato peel, rice straw, wheat straw, corncob, palm kernel meal, etc., can be used for the production of different oligosaccharides. Oligosaccharides are short chains of monosaccharides of the size ranging from two to ten units of monosaccharides or simple sugars. The oligosaccharides are highly stable and are used as dietary supplement possessing prebiotic, antioxidant activity and potential immune-modulating properties. Manno-oligosaccharides can be produced from pretreated agro-waste by hydrolysis with endo-β-(1 → 4)-mannanase. MOSs has significant stability against α-amylase, intestinal juice, and simulated gastric juice which is an essential parameter for oligosaccharides to serve as a prebiotic. Nevertheless, MOSs also supports higher growth rate of probiotic bacteria Bifidobacterium infantis and Lactobacillus acidophilus as compared to commercial prebiotic. In addition to prebiotic properties, MOS significantly reduces the growth of colon cancer cells that depicts their antagonistic properties without any cytotoxic effect against the normal cell culture. This chapter will describe the roles of manno-oligosaccharides recovered from agro-waste which have applications as prebiotics, acting antagonistic agent against cancer cells and as anti-allergic agents.