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Since introduction of functional foods, commercialization of the traditionally used probiotics has ushered in more followers into the new fraternity of sophisticated, health-conscious consumers. In 1995, this was followed by the first introduction of prebiotics. Prebiotics are defined as "a non-digestible feed supplement, beneficially affecting the host by selectively stimulating growth and/or activity in one or a limited number of bacteria in the colon." The number of new product introductions with prebiotics has steeply increased over the last few years. Paradoxically, probiotics have limited applications as these cannot be used in wide range of food products because of their viability issue. Fortunately, prebiotics do not suffer from any such constraint and can be used in a wide range of food products. Probiotics do not have a long shelf life in their active form. In most cases, refrigeration is required to maintain the shelf life. While probiotics are predominantly used in fermented dairy products, the use of prebiotics has expanded into other food categories. Prebiotics have successfully been incorporated in a wide variety of human food products such as baked goods, sweeteners, yoghurts, nutrition bars, and meal replacement shakes. For instance, the introduction of galacto-oligosaccharides (GOS) into baby foods has been very successful. GOS, which are identical to the human milk oligosaccharides, has emerged with strong clinical support for both digestive and immune health. Various aspects related to GOS such as types and functions of functional food constituents with special reference to GOS, their role as prebiotics, and enhanced industrial production through microbial intervention are dealt in this review.

The aim of our study was to assess the antibiotic resistance among commercially available probiotic Lactobacilli. A total of 30 isolates were characterized after isolation from 19 commercial products, including Lactobacillus rhamnosus, Lactobacillus acidophilus, Lactobacillus casei, Lactobacillus reuteri, Lactobacillus plantarum and Lactobacillus fermentum. All the isolates were further subjected to antibiotic susceptibility test using disc diffusion method against a total of 45 antibiotics. Most of the isolates were found to exhibit multiple resistance against some of the most commonly used antibiotics. The isolates showed high level of resistance toward nalidixic acid, vancomycin, kanamycin, teicoplanin, co-trimoxazole, amikacin, streptomycin, norfloxacin, cefepime and nitrofurantoin. Besides, isolates displayed a low level of resistance toward tobramycin, gentamicin, ampicillin, cefaclor, methicillin, penicillin, tetracycline, levofloxacin, azithromycin, chloramphenicol, amoxyclav, sulbactam, oxacillin, ofloxacin, ciprofloxacin, cloxacillin and novobiocin. All the isolates were found to be susceptible against cefatrixone, ceftazidime, cefadroxil, cefotaxime, cephalothin, cefoperazone and netillin, whereas none of the strains showed resistant to clindamycin, erythromycin, linezolid, quinupristin/dalfopristin and doxycycline. The present study showed that antibiotic resistance is prevalent in different species of probiotic strains, which may pose a food safety concern. Hence, antibiotic sensitivity should be considered as an important part of safety assessment for the evaluation of probiotics.

IABETES is characterized by hyperglycaemia and elevated production of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Clove is full of natural antioxidants such as polyphenols and essential oils. The aim of the study was to investigate the hypoglycaemic effect of clove extract in diabetic rats. The results with test rats indicated that alloxan administration induced the elevation of glucose level, activity of some liver enzymes, malondialdehyde (MDA), urea and creatinine concentrations as well as the level of some lipid contents. While the level of insulin, total thyroid hormones triiodothyronin (T 3) and thyroxine (T 4), glutathione content (GSH) in addition to the concentration of high density lipoprotein (HDL-C) were decreased under the effect of alloxan. As a result of treatment of diabetic rats with raw or irradiated clove extract, hyperglycaemia, hepatic, renal and endocrine abnormalities induced by alloxan were improved. Conclusion: clove extract exerts a dietary antidiabetic benefit and affect a partial normalization of the biochemical changes associated with alloxan-induced diabetes mellitus in rats. Furthermore, the study indicated that treatment of cloves with 10 kGy of gamma irradiation had no significant effect on the antidiabetic properties of the extract made from such cloves. This confirms the suitability of irradiation for the improvement of the hygienic quality of cloves.

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