Table 4.
Main benefits of the major prebiotics and potential mechanisms of action.
| Prebiotic | Medical/clinical benefits | Mechanisms of action | Reference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Inulin | Crohn’s disease | Enhancement of immune response | Emilia et al. (162) |
| Colitis | Effect on innate immunity | Macfarlane et al. (163), Ramirez-Farias et al. (164) | |
| Obesity | Modification of microbiota and increase in Bifidobacteria | Hopping et al. (165) | |
| Diabetes type 2 | Costabile et al. (166) | ||
| Colon cancer | Ramnani et al. (167) | ||
| Constipation | |||
| FOS (Fructo-oligosaccharides) | Crohn’s disease | Increase in Bifidobacteria | Scholtens et al. (168) |
| Colitis, | Decrease in colon pH | Benjamin et al. (169) | |
| Obesity | Reduction in lipid accumulation | de Luis et al. (170) | |
| Constipation | Secretion of anti-inflammatory substances | Cummings et al. (171) | |
| Travelers’ diarrhea | Local induction of reactive oxygen species (ROS) | Arslanoglu et al. (172) | |
| Colon cancer | Boutron-Ruault et al. (173) | ||
| GOS (Galacto-oligosaccharides) | Crohn’s disease | Improvement of growth performance and immune responses | Saavedra and Tschernia (174) |
| Colitis | Diminishment of intestinal bacterial overgrowth | Macfarlane et al. (163) | |
| Obesity | Drakoularakou et al. (175) | ||
| Soluble fiber (Guar gum, pectin) | Crohn’s disease | Enhancement of short-chain fatty acid production, and mainly acetate | Peng et al. (176) |
| Celiac disease | Normalization of intestinal microbiota | Slavin (177) | |
| Colitis | Effects on epithelial permeability | Chen et al. (178) | |
| Colon cancer | Trophic effects on enterocytes | Hu et al. (179) | |
| Metabolic syndrome | Anti-inflammatory effects | Cao et al. (180) | |
| Arthritis | Enhancement of immune response | Slavin (181) | |
| Cardiovascular diseases | Reduction of blood pressure and reduction of LDL serum concentrations |