India to (man)go for prebiotic products

Prebiotic products from some variety of mangoes from Maharashtra would be shortly available, thanks to Macs, the Agharkar Research Institute’s (ARI) research on the prebiotic potential in mangoes. The research holds importance as India does not have many prebiotic products made from indigenous fruits or plants. 

Prebiotics are non-digestible food that help to keep beneficial bacteria healthy. It is like food to the good bacteria that grows in the body to fight bad bacteria. Prebiotics are food for probiotics which are beneficial bacteria that help in fighting various intestinal problems. 

The consumption of the prebiotic products based on this research will particularly benefit in immunity development, curing digestive problems and diarrhoea.

Whatever prebiotic products are available in the market at present are mostly made from food material from Western countries. The reason is that there has not been much research about the prebiotic potential of indigenous food in India.

The research by Vaishali Agte, consulting scientist in biometry and nutrition, and Smita Nilegaonkar, senior scientist in microbial sciences of ARI, on 90 indigenous fruits and plants is the result of hard work for a decade.

The study was conducted under a project funded by the department of biotechnology of the Union government.

“We now have many food products in the market with added prebiotics as their benefits are now widely known. It is for the first time in India that such a wide study has been conducted. We had found similar prebiotic potential in grapes too,” said Nilegaonkar.

They took 12 different varieties of mangoes and found that some were rich in prebiotic potential. “These varieties are grown in Maharashtra. We are now looking at collaborating with industry to make prebiotic products with the help of this research,” she added.