Our forefathers for ages have used food products that have the presence of a multitude of microorganisms with beneficial health effects on the consumers. However, with due course of time only a few of the beneficial bacteria have made it to the headlines as probiotics. The other useful bacteria have remained in the dark due to lack of knowledge of the consumers and the industry alike. Also, the characterization and isolation of the bacteria have remained largely constrained.

As a result the probiotic potential from the bacterial strains of the two genera, Bifidobacterium and Lactobacillus have been utilized to the maximum extent. However, there is always the need to improve upon the existing probiotic strains from the aspect of higher resistance to extreme physiological conditions and provide their beneficial effects under specific set of health needs. From that regard these lesser known and under utilized bacterial strains can be quite beneficial as probiotics in due course of time if properly characterized and the knowledge gained about their utility through scientific research and clinical trials is spread to the industry and the consumers through the right forum. A number of such bacteria from different genera with probiotic potential have been identified till now. [Read more…]