Prebiotics are polysaccharides and oligosaccharides that can withstand digestion and absorption in the small
intestine, but can be selectively fermented by probiotic bacteria native to the large intestine. Over the past 15 years, a
wealth of information has been gathered on prebiotics in order to understand the mechanism of actions and elucidate
their beneficial health effects to the human host.
The present review sheds a light on the optimum conditions for prebiotic extraction. Moreover, determination
methods of prebiotics were reviewed. Such methods include: resistance to acidic and enzymatic digestion-HPLC and
NMR.
This review also focused on health benefits of prebiotics in terms of their roles as anticarcinogenic, antimicrobial,
uridic, antihyperglycemic and antiosteoporrotic agents along with their stimulatent activity.
Applications of prebiotics in food industry were also reviewed. These applications include dairy, frozen desserts,
fruit preservation, infant milk formulas and other food products