ABSTRACT
The term probiotic is derived from Greek and means ‘for life’ as opposed to antibiotics which means ‘against life’. The history of probiotics began with the consumption of fermented foods. Consumption of fermented foods was fi rst observed in ancient Greeks and Romans (Gismondo et al. 1999, Guarner et al. 2005). In 1907, Ellie Metchnikoff, a Nobel Prize winner, fi rst proposed the benefi cial effects of probiotic microorganisms on human health. Metchnikoff hypothesized that Bulgarians were healthy and lived long because of the consumption of fermented milk products which consists of rod shaped bacteria (Lactobacillus spp.). These bacteria affect the gut microfl ora positively and decrease the microbial toxic activity (Gismondo et al. 1999, Chuayana et al. 2003). The fi rst documentation about health
1 Division of Laboratories for Probiotic Research Juntendo University Graduate School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan.
