Effect of Single and Divided Ingestions of the Nondigestible Oligosaccharide “Galactosylsucrose” on Transitory Diarrhea and Laxative Threshold in Normal Female Subjects

Abstract

In order to investigate the effects of ingestion frequency of the nondigestible oligosaccharide galactosylsucrose on transitory diarrhea, a standard daily amount was divided into one, two or three parts, which were then ingested separately by 17 normal female subjects once, twice or three times in a day. Single ingestion of 60g and 45g of galactosylsucrose caused diarrhea in 9 of 14 subjects (64.2%) and 3 of 8 subjects (37.5%), respectively. However, when taken in two or three divided doses in a day, no diarrhea occurred in any of the subjects, even though the total amount ingested in one day was the same (60g or 45g). Furthermore, three divided ingestions of 30g galactosylsucrose (total 90g/day) did not cause diarrhea in 3 of 5 subjects. These results demonstrate that when the same amount of nondigestible oligosaccharide ingested in a day is divided into two or more parts and ingested separately, the level per day inducing transitory diarrhea becomes markedly higher than the laxative threshold estimated using a single ingestion of the test substance. In addition, the laxative threshold of galactosylsucrose was found to be 0.802g/kg body weight, which is greatly higher than that of other nondigestible oligosaccharides.