Effects of ciceritol from chickpeas on human colonic microflora and the production of short chain fatty acids by in vitro fermentation

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of ciceritol on human colonic microflora and the production of short chain fatty acids (SCFAs). Ciceritol was extracted from chickpeas by using 50% ethanol water solvent with a ratio of 1:10, and the extract was purified by chromatography of charcoal-Celite column and gel chromatography of Biogel P-2 column. Bacterial population and the concentration of SCFAs during in vitro anaerobic fermentation were investigated to evaluate the effect of ciceritol on human colonic microflora. The results indicated that the addition of ciceritol could significantly enhance the growth of Lactobacillus Enterococcus group (8.26 compared to 7.71 logio cells/mL of control group) and Bifidobacterium spp. (10.43 compared to 9.45 log(10) cells/mL of control group), and inhibit the growth of Bacteroides Prevotella, Clostridium histolyticum and Eubacterium Clostridium groups. Besides, the production of SCFAs was significantly improved by addition of ciceritol that the content was twice of the control group. Accordingly, we conclude that ciceritol can behave as a potential prebiotics by optimizing the microflora of human colon and promoting the production of SCFAs, which will benefit to human health. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.