Cactus Mucilages : Nutritional, Health Benefits and Clinical Trials

 

Mauricio A. Ondarza
 

 

Review I Published June, 2016

 

Journal of Medical and Biological Science Research Vol. 2 (6), pp. 87-103

 

ABSTRACT

For a better understanding of the central function of the intestinal flora, we must know that intestines are constituted naturally by nearly 100 trillions of bacteria, which by the way represents more than 10 times the number of totally cells in our whole body. Those trillions of bacteria are distributed by 500 or 1000 different species that form our intestinal microbiota or flora. Speaking about the fragile equilibrium of our intestinal flora, it is well known that our intestinal flora´s quality is define from the first days of our lives, it is alive and it evolutes according to nutrition, sickness and drugs taken. If you eat a lot of transform ailments, your intestinal bacteria will suffer since those ailments will destroy the healthy microbiota. In view of this exposition to pollutants which affects us more and more every day, nutritionists recommend to seed regularly good bacteria in our intestines through the nourishment of fermented ailments or by taking supplementary probiotics and to ingest prebiotics promotting beneficial effects to this concern, cactus mucilages and more precisely oligosaccharides are a promising ailment that seems to promote either nutritional and health benefits to the human intestinal microbiota.

Key words: Cactus, Mucilages, Oligosaccharides, Intestinal microbiota, Health and nutritional benefits and Synbiotics.

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