“…These bacteria are becoming recognized worldwide because of their health and nutritional benefits such as potential beneficial roles in the human intestinal tract (KURMANN & RASIC, 1991;ROBINSON & SAMONA, 1992;VIJAYENDRA & GUPTA, 1992;HOOVER, 1993). Antitumorigenic activity, improvement of lactose-tolerance, reduction of serum cholesterol levels, reduction of ammonia and free serum phenol in patients with liver disease, synthesis of vitamins, increased immunocompetence and antagonistic effects towards enteropathogenic bacteria have all been deviled (POUPARD et al, 1973;ANAND et al, 1984;KAGEYAMA et al, 1984;OKAMURA et al, 1986;UEDA, 1986;YAMAZAKI et al, 1985;HUGHES & HOOVER, 1991;HOOVER, 1993;ISHIBASHI & SHIMAMURA, 1993;DAVIDE, 1995;KEBARY, 1995;SUZUKI, 1995;JIANG et al, 1996;ZOMMARA et al, 1996;BADAWI & EL-SONBATY, 1997;KAILASAPATHY & RYBKA, 1997;ATHRAYILKKALATHIIL & PRASAD, 1997). It is estimated that over 70 products containing bifidobacteria are produced worldwide (HUGHES & HOOVER, 1991;SHAH, 1997).…”