Commercial sources of probiotic strains and their validated and potential health benefits : a review

In the recent past, a number of probiotic strains have been screened and selected for incorporation into commercial functional food products. Some of these strains have been validated for specific health benefits through human clinical trials others have been documented as offering potential health benefits. In the past commercial probiotic strains were selected for their technological properties, however, in the recent past, validated health benefits have assumed much greater importance. This review includes the characteristics of genus Bifidobacteriaand Lactobacillus and other microbes that are currently considered as probiotic organisms, selection criteria employed to screen them as effective probiotic strains, their validated and potential health benefits documented. In the recent screening and selection of strains for probiotic efficacy a change in focus from having technological properties to offering validated health benefits may allow the strains to lose their technological properties including the ability to survive both food processing and gastrointestinal environment. Further, different food matrices may have different interactions with probiotic bacterial cells and hence validated human health benefits cannot be generalised for all food matrices as vehicles for administration and delivery.