Abstract
Prebiotics are non-digestible food ingredients that stimulate the growth of bifidogenic and lactic acid bacteria in the gastro-intestinal tract. Typically, the prebiotics consist of dietary fibers and oligosaccharides. Prebiotics exert a plethora of health-promoting effects, owing to which multi million food and pharma industries have been established. Prebiotics are being implicated in starter culture formulation, gut health maintenance, colitis prevention, cancer inhibition, immunopotentiaton, cholesterol removal, reduction of cardiovascular disease, prevention of obesity and constipation, bacteriocin production, use in fishery, poultry, pig, cattle feed and pet food. Looking at the ever-increasing demand of prebiotics, in this review, recent trends in prebiotic production from new novel sources, from food industrial wastes, prebiotic supplementation in food, commercially available prebiotic agents, prebiotic production by various techniques and future perspectives has been discussed. The critical insight into this hot research area aims to stimulate further ponderance.