BOOK REVIEWS

Abstract

Foodborne Pathogens: Microbiology and Molecular Biology. Pina M. Fratamico, Arun K. Bhunia, James L. Smith. Caister Academic Press, Norwich, UK. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data. (ISBN 1-904455-00-X. Probiotics & Prebiotics: Scientific Aspects. Gerald W. Tannock. Caister Academic Press, Norwich, UK. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data. (ISBN 1-904455-01-8. Two books on the resident and transient microbial flora of the human gut: one on the obligate intestinal pathogens, the other covering the bacterial species that naturally inhabit our gut and those microbial species meant to bring good fortune from the outside. The obligate pathogens have been well described and their diseases well characterized. Prebiotics concern nondigestible carbohydrates in food that are fermentable by selected bacterial species in the large bowel. Probiotics involves the delivery of live bacteria to the mammalian gut ecosystem. The bacteriology of these three entities are the topics of the two books listed above. The relevance of pre- and probiotics seems to be questionable from the medical point of view. This is quite obvious from the last chapter in Probiotics & Prebiotics . The chapter is written by Gerald Tannock, also editor of the book. In a very short section of the book the terms ‘might’, ‘may’, ‘should be’, ‘seems most likely’ and ‘probably’ are used quite frequently. This underscores that despite extensive investigations still little is known on the clinical efficacy of pro- and prebiotics. Prebiotics (discussed in a single chapter in the book) are somewhat underexposed, but terms such as presumptive and preliminary are used frequently. However, this is not what the book is primarily …