Prebiotics could expand corn market

Research from government scientists in the US suggests that a new enzyme process to make prebiotics from carbohydrates could expand markets for corn and other commodity crops.

Prebiotics are complex carbohydrates - such as inulin and short-chain sugars called oligosaccharides - that pass undigested from the lower intestine to the colon. At this point the carbohydrates are consumed by Bifidobacterium​ and other beneficial bacteria that release vitamins, minerals and nutrients that might not otherwise be available to their human hosts.

Greg Côté, a chemist at the US Agricultural Research Service, found that an enzyme-based process for making alternan - a promising bulking agent - also yielded oligosaccharides that stimulate the growth of Bifidobacterium​ bacteria.

Côté reports that his fermentation studies, held at the ARS' National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research in Peoria, Illinois, could eventually offer producers a way to mass-produce the oligosaccharides from a domestic commodity such as carbohydrate-rich corn, soybean, beet and cane crops.

Early results suggest that the oligosaccharides nourish several beneficial strains of Bifidobacterium,​ but not pathogens such as Salmonella, Escherichia coli​ and Clostridium​. Côté discussed his findings last spring at the American Chemical Society's national meeting but this April ARS applied for patent protection covering the synthesis and potential use of some of the prebiotics as food additives for both people and livestock animals.

Although the US market for prebiotics is comparatively young, in Europe and Asia the popularity of prebiotic food products is on an upward curve as the consumer increasingly tackles gastrointestinal problems through foodstuffs.