Sejong Oh
Chonnam National University, South Korea
Title: Animal-origin Probiotics vs Plant-origin Probiotics
Biography
Biography: Sejong Oh
Abstract
At the beginning of the 20th century, Ellie Metchnikoff (1845–1916), Ernest Moro (1874–1951), and Leo Rettger (1874–1954) made their first scientific contributions to the research on probiotics. In humans, lactic acid bacteria (LAB) have a strong influence on the host’s health because LAB are an important biodefense factor for preventing colonization by and subsequent proliferation of pathogenic bacteria in the intestine. Probiotics is largely used for the production of fermented products of animal (dairy) and plant origin. Recently, fruit or vegetable products containing probiotics are preferred by some consumers. In the formulation of fruit or vegetable probiotic products, Lactobacillus acidophilus, L. casei, L. plantarum, L. rhamnosus and Bifidobacterium lactis are most utilized. European, American and Asian (especially in Japan and South Korea) markets already commonly sell probiotic products from fruits and vegetables. Lactobacillus plantarum, as a heterogeneous and versatile species that is encountered in a variety of environmental niches, including fermented food products, such as dairy, meat, fish, and vegetables, as well as plant matter. This species exhibits various biological effects such as antitumor, anticoagulant, antiviral, immune modulatory and anti-inflammatory, anti-diabetic, and anti-oxidant or free radical scavenging activity. My research group discovered that L. plantarum strains isolated from kimchi and infant feces. These strains have a high survival rate in low pH conditions. Proteins isolated from L. plantarum L67 could stimulate the apoptotic signals and then consequently induce programmed cell death in HT-29 cells. The results in this study suggest that L. plantarum L67 could be used as a probiotic culture for the production of dairy or vegetable fermented foods. Some companies insist that plant origin-probiotics are superior than animal-origin probiotics without any scientific data that supports the claim. How are plant proteins much better than animal proteins for human health? Simple answer is that it is not.