2007 Volume 8 Issue 4 Pages 231-238
Coffee is a popular beverage worldwide. Recently, many epidemiological studies suggest that coffee may play a preventative role in various diseases. There has been increasing interest in the health benefits of coffee. Coffee contains several bioactive compounds, which are known to affect human body chemistry. Among them, we focused on mannooligosaccharides (MOS) extracted by thermal hydrolysis from spent coffee grounds. MOS from coffee are composed of mannose, which is known to have physiological functions such as the prevention of Salmonella infection. MOS are also expected to have various other types of physiological functions. However, no prior research is available regarding the functionality of MOS from coffee. First, we demonstrated the prebiotic effect of MOS in a human intervention study after the confirmation of this effect in vitro and in an animal feeding study. Next, we confirmed the fat reduction effect of MOS by studying the inhibition of intestinal absorption of dietary fat in animals and in a human clinical study. These findings were applied to our coffee products containing MOS. These products have been certified as Foods for Specified Health Use (FOSHU) and commercially launched.
