Evaluation of prebiotic ability of xylo-oligosaccharide fractions with different polymerization degrees from bamboo shoot shells

Abstract

The degree of polymerization of xylo-oligosaccharides (XOS) as prebiotics affects the gut microbiota’s metabolism. Herein, the differential prebiotic effects of original XOS solution and XOS solution enriched in X2-X3 (LDX) from bamboo shoot shells by hydrothermal pretreatment were investigated through intestinal microbiota in vitro. The findings demonstrated that the anaerobic cultivation of intestinal microbiota by XOS and LDX could increase its abundance by 1.8-fold and 2.3-fold with sugar utilization rates of 90% and 100%, respectively. The concentrations of produced short-chain fatty acids were 3.7 g/L and 6.4 g/L, respectively. The α-diversity analysis of gut microbiota revealed that the LDX group exhibited a lower species richness in microbial growth and a more evenness distribution of bacterial species compared to XOS group. The analysis of gut microbiota species composition highlights that LDX induced a more prominent proliferation of the Firmicutes phyla, while also displaying stronger inhibitory effects on the Proteobacteria phylum. Additionally, functional predictions suggested significant differences between XOS and LDX in terms of modulating the metabolism of gut microbiota, whereas LDX demonstrates its strength in inhibiting pathogenic bacterial communities. This research is to offer a theoretical foundation for the prebiotics made from bamboo shoot shells.