Potential Use of Marine Seaweeds as Prebiotics: A Review
Human gut microbiota plays an important role in several metabolic processes and human diseases. Various dietary factors, including complex carbohydrates, such as polysaccharides, provide abundant nutrients and substrates for microbial metabolism in the gut, affecting the members and their functional...
| Authors: | , , , , , , |
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| Format: | article |
| Publication Date: | 2020 |
| Country: | España |
| Institution: | Universidad de Santiago de Compostela (USC) |
| Repository: | Minerva. Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Santiago de Compostela |
| Language: | English |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:minerva.usc.gal:10347/39458 |
| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/10347/39458 |
| Access Level: | Open access |
| Keyword: | Prebiotic Polysaccharides Seaweed Rhodophyceae Phaeophyceae Chlorophyceae |
| Summary: | Human gut microbiota plays an important role in several metabolic processes and human diseases. Various dietary factors, including complex carbohydrates, such as polysaccharides, provide abundant nutrients and substrates for microbial metabolism in the gut, affecting the members and their functionality. Nowadays, the main sources of complex carbohydrates destined for human consumption are terrestrial plants. However, fresh water is an increasingly scarce commodity and world agricultural productivity is in a persistent decline, thus demanding the exploration of other sources of complex carbohydrates. As an interesting option, marine seaweeds show rapid growth and do not require arable land, fresh water or fertilizers. The present review offers an objective perspective of the current knowledge surrounding the impacts of seaweeds and their derived polysaccharides on the human microbiome and the profound need for more in-depth investigations into this topic. Animal experiments and in vitro colonic-simulating trials investigating the effects of seaweed ingestion on human gut microbiota are discussed. |
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