Multispecies approach builds a better probiotic team, Winclove believes
Elsbeth Pekelharing, PhD, science liaison for Winclove Probiotics, spoke with NutraIngredients-USA on the company’s philosophy on formulation, and how it narrowed down its offering to a suite of selected species. Pekelharing spoke at recent IPA World Congress + Probiota Americas event, which was hosted by William Reed in Chicago last week. The event brought together 280 regulators, probiotics and prebiotics researchers and product developers.
“At Winclove we believe that there is not one strain that can have all the capacities that you might want to have for a certain indication. So what we try to do is to characterize the stains we have in our database, and then we can select them and combine them,” Pekelharing said.
Pekelharing spoke in particular on a combination of strains called Ecologic Barrier, a multispecies production meant to strengthen the gut’s barrier function. A breakdown in this function leads to so-called ‘leaky gut’ syndrome, when various antigens can enter the bloodstream that would normally be blocked. The barrier function of the intestine can be influenced by different factors, such as antibiotics, infections, stress and drugs, Pekelharing said. The product is a mixture of B. bifidum W23, B. lactis W52,
L. acidophilus W37, L. brevis W63, L. casei W56, L. salivarius W24, Lc. lactis W19 and Lc. lactis W58.
“Stress has an influence on gut function. What’s new in research is that this relationship is actually bidirectionnel,” Pekelharing said.
