Project
Fermentation of antioxidant dietary fibres
Plant derived polyphenols are an important group of functional ingredients with potential to promote human gut health. Not all polyphenols in foods are absorbed, but some are transformed by the intestinal microbiota thereby increasing their absorption and appearance in the blood. In many foods, polyphenols are bound to dietary fibres, often forming a water insoluble material called antioxidant dietary fibres (ADF).
Aim
In this study we want to investigate how dietary fibre and polyphenolic structure and composition changes during fermentation and what kind of metabolites are formed.Approach We will select ADF of different chemical compositions and/or physical structures and subject those to fermentation with the SHIME digestion system, an updated, semi-static and semi-automated model of in-vitro digestion, to simulate microbial fermentation in the gut. The dynamic of ADF fermentation will be studied by monitoring the nature and concentration of the metabolites produced from polyphenols and the amount of short chain fatty acids from dietary fibre.
References
1. Hamaker, B.R. and Y.E. Tuncil, A perspective on the complexity of dietary fiber structures and their potential effect on the gut microbiota. Journal of molecular biology, 2014. 426(23): p. 3838-3850.
2. Molly, K., M.V. Woestyne, and W. Verstraete, Development of a 5-step multi-chamber reactor as a simulation of the human intestinal microbial ecosystem. Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology, 1993. 39(2): p. 254-258.