Prebiotics and probiotics

The gut microbiota exerts a key role in the overall health and wellbeing of humans. Host gut microbial members are involved in managing several physiological and biochemical responses, including intestinal physiology, pathogen colonization, immune response, host growth, and prevention of several diseases. However, different factors such as diet, age, lifestyle, disease status, immune status, antibiotics, environment, and physiology can influence the human gut microbial balance. Thus prebiotics and probiotics have been emerging as effective tools to selectively modulate and shape the human gut microbiota’s composition and function toward a healthier profile. This chapter describes the updated concept, the main dietary sources, the major classes of prebiotics and probiotics, as well as their proposed mechanisms of action and recent scientific evidence in animal and human trials.