Fructooligosaccharides: A comprehensive review (2025)

Nutritional aspects of short-chain fructooligosaccharides: natural occurrence, chemistry, physiology and health implications

Digestive and Liver Disease, 2002

An Overview of the Recent Developments on Fructooligosaccharide Production and Applications

Food and Bioprocess Technology, 2013

Over the past years, many researchers have suggested that deficiencies in the diet can lead to disease states and that some diseases can be avoided through an adequate intake of relevant dietary components. Recently, a great interest in dietary modulation of the human gut has been registered. Prebiotics, such as fructooligosaccharides (FOS), play a key role in the improvement of gut microbiota balance and in individual health. FOS are generally used as components of functional foods, are generally regarded as safe (generally recognized as safe status-from the Food and Drug Administration, USA), and worth about 150€ per kilogram. Due to their nutrition-and health-relevant properties, such as moderate sweetness, low carcinogenicity, low calorimetric value, and low glycemic index, FOS have been increasingly used by the food industry. Conventionally, FOS are produced through a two-stage process that requires an enzyme production and purification step in order to proceed with the chemical reaction itself. Several studies have been conducted on the production of FOS, aiming its optimization toward the development of more efficient production processes and their potential as food ingredients. The improvement of FOS yield and productivity can be achieved by the use of different fermentative methods and different microbial sources of FOSproducing enzymes and the optimization of nutritional and culture parameter; therefore, this review focuses on the latest progresses in FOS research such as its production, functional properties, and market data.

Recent trends in the microbial production, analysis and application of Fructooligosaccharides

Trends in Food Science & Technology, 2005

This review focuses on the recent developments in the area of FOS research-its microbial production, functional properties and applications and an overview of the different analytical methods for the determination of the FTase. Different microbial sources of FTase reported in literature to produce FOS with different linkages to form 1-kestose, 6-kestose and neokestose in varying yields based on initial sucrose concentration is discussed. Different fermentative methods have been used for production of FOS. SSF has been used for the production of a value added product FOS utilizing various agroindustrial byproducts. The nutritional and culture parameters when optimized, the FOS yields and productivity could be improved. The use of immobilized enzymes and cells has led to the development of effective and economic methods for large-scale production of FOS. Forced flow Membrane reactor systems, biocatalyst system with a bioreactor equipped with a microfiltration systems, have been used for production of high content FOS by removing the released glucose and unreacted sucrose from the reaction mixture resulting in up to 98% FOS. The use of mixed enzyme system of Fructosyl Transferase and glucose oxidase or glucose dehydrogenase, could produce highly concentrated FOS up to 90-98%. Nano-filtration for removing glucose resulted in FOS of 90% concentration. The purified enzyme was found to produce kestose and nystose unlike the crude enzyme which produced GF 5 and GF 6 oligosaccharides Kinetic parameters (V m , K m , and K i ) of the enzyme were determined from experimental data on the transfructosylation rate at various substrate concentrations with and without addition of glucose Techniques like HPLC, using polar-bonded phase and resin-based HPLC columns are commonly used for separation of oligosaccharides with refractive Index Detector or pulsed amperometric detector and annular size exclusion chromatography for large scale and continuous fractionation. Other techniques like gas liquid chromatography, thin layer chromatography, NMR and Mass Spectrometry have been used for structure analyses. The functional properties like use as prebiotics, dietary fiber, role in absorption and defense/Immunity, lipid metabolism control of diabetics have been discussed. A variety of applications in food formulations are also discussed.

Functional and nutraceutical properties of fructo-oligosaccharides derivatives: a review

International Journal of Food Properties

Prebiotics are good source of dietary fiber or a group of nutrients or nondigestible short chain carbohydrates which human body cannot digest and it stimulates the growth and activity of some friendly bacteria in your intestinal tract. Prebiotics fibers are linked to β-(2→1) fructosyl units and are universally agreed to be fructooligosaccharides (FOS) or oligofructose or oligosaccharide or inulin. FOS are oligosaccharides that occur naturally in a variety of plants such as garlic and onions, wheat, rye, chicory roots, jerusalem artichokes, nectarine, seaweed, sugar cane bagasse, cassava waste, rice bran, rice straw, apple pomace, papaya, beet root peels, flaxseed, cereals, and banana peels among many others. These are extracted from fruits, vegetables, seeds and cereals using the various novel techniques such as membrane ultra-filtration method, microwave extraction, Ultrasonic Microwave Assisted Extraction, and high-pressure solvent extraction method. FOS are non-digestible carbohydrates with low-calorie that improve the taste and texture of food products while immunity booster, nutraceutical properties, bone health, microbial properties and its prebiotic activity in digestive track are the limelight of current review article. In addition, the main beneficial physiological effects of FOS such as low carcinogenicity, improved mineral absorption in gut and a reduction in serum cholesterol levels, triacylglycerols and phospholipids are the major part of this review. Moreover, FOS is beneficial for long-term blood glucose and its sensitivity to insulin due to the higher contents of plasma-free fatty acids using low tissue glucose. Conclusively, FOS improves intestinal flora, with subsequent relief of constipation, reduce the risk of heart diseases and certain cancers, improved blood lipids in hyperlipidemia, suppressed the production of intestinal putrefactive-substances and make your digestive work better.

Fructosyltransferases: the enzymes catalyzing production of fructooligosaccharides

The effect of processing conditions on the stability of fructooligosaccharides in acidic food products

Food Chemistry, 2015

The effect of processing conditions (temperature and degree of polymerisation, DP) on the stability of short-chain fructooligosaccharides (sc-FOS) was investigated in three reaction media (sodium citrate buffer and orange and tomato juices) in a kinetic study at pH 3.5. In addition, kinetic equations as a function of temperature and pH were developed, using published data. Pentasaccharides were more stable to heat treatment than were trisaccharides under all of the conditions tested. In addition, the sc-FOS were more stable in orange juice, followed by tomato juice and citrate buffer. The results showed that, in addition to temperature and pH, the DP and food matrix, including the type of pasteurisation, must be considered when processing foods enriched with sc-FOS. Furthermore, the continuous thermal processing simulation for each of the equivalent processes at 90°C revealed that the percent retention of sc-FOS is greater than 95% at temperatures above 95°C.

Production , purification and fecal fermentation of fructooligosaccharide by FTase from Jerusalem artichoke

2017

Fructooligosaccharides (FOS) has been used as prebiotic that serves as a substrate for microflora in the large intestine. FOS are produced by fructosyltransferase (FTase) derived from some plants such as Jerusalem artichoke, chicory, asparagus, banana, dragon fruit and onion. It was found that Jerusalem artichoke cultured in tropical region for 3-5 months showed good source of FTase. It had the highest crude enzyme activity of 0.253±0.003 U/ml. Optimal conditions for purification of FTase by chromatography techniques with anion exchangers showed the highest specific activity which increased from 1.411 to 2.240 U/ml. Optimum conditions for production of FOS were 20% sucrose, reaction time of 96 h and 1 U/ml FTase. It was found that highest FOS (35%) consisted of 27.5% 1-kestose (DP 2) and 7.5% nystose (DP 3). Fructooligosaccharide was further purified by yeast fermentation using 2.5% Saccharomyces cerevisiae TISTR5019 for 36 h. It could decrease sucrose from 46.1% to 28.7%. The chemi...

Manufacturing of Short-Chain Fructooligosaccharides: from Laboratory to Industrial Scale

Food Engineering Reviews, 2020

Short-chain fructooligosaccharides (ScFOS) are a group of linear fructose oligomers that include 1-kestose, 1-nystose and 1-βfructofuranosylnystose. ScFOS, which naturally occur at low levels in different plant products, are of high interest as food ingredients because of their prebiotic character, organoleptic characteristics and technological properties. Two different industrial processes are used to achieve large-scale ScFOS production: inulin hydrolysis (enzymatic or chemical hydrolysis) or sucrose biotransformation by transfructosylation (enzymatic synthesis) using specific enzymes like fructosyltransferases and fructofuranosidases. Enzymatic ScFOS synthesis seems to be more advantageous than inulin hydrolysis since it is less expensive, and leads to lower molecular weight FOS. The biotechnological process described to carry out this catalysis includes the production of transfructosylation enzymes, separation, enzyme immobilisation and finally the ScFOS production and purification. Such ScFOS production processes may be conducted under submerged or solid-state fermentation under discontinuous or continuous conditions. Several methodologies with different economic/environmental costs and production yields have been described to carry out these ScFOS production stages, although industrial scale-up needs to be optimised. This review tries to address a revision about enzymatic ScFOS production methods and its scale-up to industrial levels.

A reverse-phase liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry method for the analysis of high-molecular-weight fructooligosaccharides

Analytical Biochemistry, 2009

Many important crop and forage plants accumulate polymeric water-soluble carbohydrates as fructooligosaccharides (or fructans). We have developed an improved method for the analysis of the full fructan complement in plant extracts based on porous graphitized carbon chromatography coupled to negative electrospray ionization mass spectrometry. By the use of profile data collection and multiple charge state ions, the effective mass range of the ion trap was extended to allow for the analysis of very high-molecular-weight oligosaccharides. This method allows the separation and quantification of isomeric fructan oligomers ranging from degree of polymerization (DP) 3 to DP 49.

Dietary Sugars Analysis: Quantification of Fructooligossacharides during Fermentation by HPLC-RI Method

Frontiers in Nutrition, 2014

In this work, a simple chromatographic method is proposed and in-house validated for the quantification of total and individual fructooligossacharides (e.g., 1-kestose, nystose, and 1 F-fructofuranosylnystose). It was shown that a high-performance liquid chromatography with refractive index detector could be used to monitor the dynamic of fructooligossacharides production via sucrose fermentation using Aspergillus aculeatus. This analytical technique may be easily implemented at laboratorial or industrial scale for fructooligossacharides mass-production monitoring allowing also controlling the main substrate (sucrose) and the secondary by-products (glucose and fructose). The proposed chromatographic method had a satisfactory intra-and inter-day variability (in general, with a relative standard deviation lower than 5%), high sensitivity for each sugar (usually, with a relative error lower than 5%), and low detection (lower than 0.06 ± 0.04 g/L) and quantification (lower than 0.2 ± 0.1 g/L) limits. The correct quantification of fructooligossacharides in fermentative media may allow a more precise nutritional formulation of new functional foods, since it is reported that different fructooligossacharides exhibit different biological activities and effects.