The Right Species

Hundreds of different bacteria species are the natural and predominant constituents of intestinal microbiota. Among the numerous intestinal microbes, those anticipated to exhibit potential health benefits to the host through modulation of the intestinal microbiota are commonly selected as probiotics. Species belonging to the genera Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium have been reported to be the beneficial probiotic bacterial strains. The representative species include L. acidophilus, L. casei, L. plantarum, B. lactis, B. longum, and B. bifidum (Kailasapathy & Chin 2000; Ishibashi & Yamazaki 2001). Some of the major health benefits attributed to probiotics include improvement of gastrointestinal microflora, enhancement of immune system, reduction of serum cholesterol, cancer prevention, treatment of irritable bowel-associated diarrhoeas, antihypertensive effects as well as improvement of lactose metabolism (Saarela et al. 2000; Nagpal et al. 2012).

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Reference: Shi, Lye Huey et al. “Beneficial Properties of Probiotics.” Tropical Life Sciences Research 27.2 (2016): 73–90. PMC. Web. 14 Jan. 2018.