The Sourdough School

BALM – Proven as one of the healthiest approaches to bread in the world.

Based in the walled gardens of Dr. Vanessa Kimbell's beautiful Victorian home in rural Northamptonshire, UK, we tutor individuals and train bakers and healthcare professionals in Baking as Lifestyle Medicine (BALM). Personalising bread to your lifestyle, gut microbiome, and unique genetics for optimal health—tailoring fermentation, fibre, and diversity so that your daily bread becomes the foundation of your health.

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172 - ‘Study on prebiotic effectiveness of neutral garlic fructan in vitro’. Food Science and Human Wellness. 2 (119-123)

Reference Number: 172

Year: 2013

Authors: NingZhang, XuesongHuang, YanhuaZeng, XiyangWu, XichunPeng

Link: Link to original paper

Summary

Summary:

Garlic is traditionally believed to have many health benefits including prevention of gastrointestinal diseases. One of the major components, garlic fructan (GF), was evaluated for its prebiotic effectiveness on human intestinal microflora. Garlic fructans A (DP 16) and B (DP 21) were prepared by ethanol fractionationprecipitation. Then, they were added to an in vitro fermentation system as the sole carbon source inoculated with human fecal suspension. The total anaerobic bacteria, Bacteroides and Bifidobacteria, were enumerated by plate counting on selective media. Terminal restriction fragment length polymerization(tRFLP) was used to analyze DNA extracted from the in vitro cultures. The results indicated that the log CFUs of both Bacteroides (GF A 6.96, GF B 7.15) and Bifidobacteria (GF A 7.74, GF B 7.74) grown in the GF cultures at 24 h were significantly higher than those at 0 h (Bacteroides 4.93, Bifidobacteria4.78) (P < 0.05). Terminal restriction fragments (TRFs) 256–258 bp (ascribed to Bifidobacterium) in the profiles were also observed higher in the TRFLP profiles from the garlic fructans’ cultures. In this study, GFs were found to selectively stimulate the growth of beneficial Bifidobacteria from human fecal microflora. The prebiotic effectiveness of GFs supports the use of garlic as a way to prevent some gastrointestinal diseases.

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All reasonable care is taken when advising about health aspects of bread, but the information that we share is not intended to take the place of treatment by a qualified medical practitioner. You must seek professional advice if you are in any doubt about any medical condition. Any application of the ideas and information contained on this website is at the reader's sole discretion and risk.

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