Correspondence
Professor Department of Biotechnology, Punjabi University, Patiala-147002, Punjab, India. e-mail: aruna_bhatia@rediffmail.com. Ph.No.9878263077

Prebiotic agents have been shown to have significant clinical beneficial effects in the prevention and management of gastrointestinal and non- gastrointestinal conditions. Prebiotics are short chain fatty carbohydrates that alter the composition or metabolism, of the gut microbiota in a beneficial manner. It is therefore expected that prebiotics will improve health in a way similar to probiotics, whilst at the same time being cheaper, and carrying less risk and being easier to incorporate into the diet than probiotics. These observations have led to work demonstrating that an important mechanism of these agents in their close interaction with the gut associated lymphoid tissue [GALT]. The preliminary finding of several recent human clinical trials reviewed in this article indicates that prebiotics may indeed prove to be beneficial dietry supplement, in the context of novel nutritional strategies for the management and systemic conditions.

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