Studying the dose-dependent effect of honey on the modulation of the infant microbiome

The composition and function of the intestinal microbiota plays an important role in human health and disease prevention. Prebiotics are promising health foods because they can regulate the structure and number of intestinal microbes. Prebiotics can stimulate the growth or activity of beneficial bacteria in the colon. Some Australian honeys have been shown to have prebiotic properties in adults and children with doses of 1% in microcosm experiments, but dose response studies are lacking. In this study, an Australian honey with demonstrated prebiotic properties, was used to study the dose response for infant microbiota. Ex-vivo microcosms seeded with fecal slurries from a 3 year old were established with different honey concentrations (1%, 0.75%,0.5%,0.25%,0). The microcosms were sampled after 48 h incubation and the samples analyzed for the short chain fatty acids (SCFAs), using GC-MS, and levels of the potentially beneficial Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium by qPCR. The results show that different doses of honey have different effect on the infant’s microbiota. The honey concentration of 0.5% yielded the highest total number of Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium. Furthermore, honey addition resulted in elevated levels of SCFAs, especially butyric acid, known to have beneficial effects in the body, however, with the higher concentration, lower levels of isovaleric acid and valeric acid were detected. It was concluded that lower doses of honey would sufficient for children, than are noted for adults in previous studies.​Master of Science (Biomedical Engineering