Japanese Journal of Lactic Acid Bacteria
Online ISSN : 2186-5833
Print ISSN : 1343-327X
ISSN-L : 1343-327X
Volume 18, Issue 1
Displaying 1-6 of 6 articles from this issue
  • Soichi Arai, Akiko Shimizu-Ibuka
    2007 Volume 18 Issue 1 Pages 2-6
    Published: March 15, 2007
    Released on J-STAGE: February 13, 2009
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    The old Chinese saying “Medicine and food share a common origin” has had a resurgence. In 1984, Japan proposed the terminology and concept of “functional foods” as those which function to reduce the risk of lifestyle-related diseases. The hypoallergenic rice which the author and co-workers produced offers a good example (Nature 1993). Since then, interest in functional foods has been propagating globally. One of the most interesting examples of functional food factors would be probiotics. A recent trend of research is to assess the functionality by means of nutrigenomics using sophisticated DNA microarray techniques. It will be possible to give rise to personalized nutrition and tailor-made foods based on single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of genes. Functional food science is proceeding to open a new door.
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  • Jin-zhong Xiao, Shizuki Kondo, Toshitaka Odamaki, Kazuhiro Miyaji, Tom ...
    2007 Volume 18 Issue 1 Pages 31-36
    Published: March 15, 2007
    Released on J-STAGE: February 13, 2009
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    Fifty five healthy subjects (12 men and 43 women, average age 31.6±7.) with constipation tendency were employed to study the effect of a drink-type yogurt supplemented with probiotic strain Bifidobacterium longum BB 536 on defecation, in a placebo-controlled, double-blinded two-way crossover design. After a 2-week run-in period, subjects were randomly allocated to receive BB 536-supplemented yogurt (BB 536 yogurt, containing > 2 × 107 CFU/g of BB 536) or placebo yogurt at 100 g per day for 2 weeks. After a 2-week washout period, subjects were crossed over to another 2-weeks of intake. Either BB 536 yogurt or placebo yogurt contained > 1 × 107 CFU/g lactic acid bacteria. The defecation frequency was significantly increased during the intake stages of either BB 536 yogurt or placebo yogurt compared with non-intake periods (p<0.001). Significant increase was also found by administration of BB 536 yogurt compared with placebo yogurt (p<0.05). No adverse effect was found due to the yogurt intake. These results indicate that the administration of BB 536 yogurt is effective to improve the defecation frequency.
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