GOS Help Say Goodbye to Indigestion And Enjoy Delicious Food Easily

Galacto-oligosaccharide (GOS) is one of the functional oligosaccharides that have been developed internationally. Its molecular structure is generally 1 to 7 galactose groups connected to galactose or glucose molecules. It is available in powder or liquid form. Its sweetness is about 35-40% of sucrose. It can be used by eight beneficial bacteria in the human intestine, including adolescent Bifidobacterium B, Bifidobacterium bifidum B, infant Bifidobacterium B, Bifidobacterium longum B, Bifidobacterium breve B, Lactobacillus acidophilus L, Lactobacillus casei L, and Lactobacillus salivarius. It has good thermal stability and strong acid resistance, and is a high-quality prebiotic. In nature, there are trace amounts of galacto-oligosaccharide in animal milk, and the content in breast milk is slightly higher. Galacto-oligosaccharide has a relatively pure sweetness, a low caloric value, a sweetness of 20% to 40% of sucrose, and extremely strong moisturizing properties. It has high thermal stability under neutral pH conditions. After heating at 100℃ for 1h or 120℃ for 30min, there is no decomposition of galacto-oligosaccharide. When galacto-oligosaccharide is heated with protein, Maillard reaction will occur, and it can be used in the processing of special foods such as bread and pastries.

As a high-quality prebiotic, galacto-oligosaccharide has the following functions

1. Promote the growth of probiotics: galacto-oligosaccharide can be used as a nutrient for probiotics, promote the growth and reproduction of probiotics in the intestine, and maintain the balance of intestinal flora.

2. Improve intestinal health: galacto-oligosaccharide can increase the number of beneficial bacteria in the intestine, inhibit the growth of harmful bacteria, reduce the production of harmful substances in the intestine, and help improve intestinal health.

3. Improve immunity: galacto-oligosaccharide can promote probiotics to produce short-chain fatty acids and other substances, enhance the barrier function of intestinal mucosa, improve immunity, and reduce inflammatory response.

4. Promote nutrient absorption: galacto-oligosaccharide can promote the growth and metabolism of probiotics in the intestine, help improve the absorption rate of nutrients, and improve nutritional status.

In general, galacto-oligosaccharides are beneficial to intestinal health and immune function. They can be added to food as a prebiotic or used as a health supplement. Oligosaccharide manufacturing methods can be roughly divided into the following categories:

1. Extraction from natural raw materials, such as extracting raffinose from beet juice or beet molasses, extracting stachyose from plant blueberry, extracting soy oligosaccharides from soy whey after removing soy protein, and extracting nitrogen-containing polysaccharides and oligosaccharides from carrots.

2. Production by microbial enzyme hydrolysis, such as milk or egg white treated with papain or pepsin to obtain peptide bifidobacterial factors.

3. Manufactured by transfer reaction of microbial enzymes. Industrially produced oligosaccharides are manufactured by bioenzymatic hydrolysis or transfer reaction, such as isomaltose, oligofructose, oligoxylose, lactulose, oligolactose and oligochitosan.

4. Manufactured by chemical synthesis, such as using pressurized hydrogenation to manufacture sugar alcohols with bifidobacterial function from sugars, such as xylitol and lactitol.

Some scholars have compared the prebiotic effects of different functional oligosaccharides, including isomaltooligosaccharides (IMO), fructooligosaccharides (FOS), galacto-oligosaccharides (GOS), xylooligosaccharides (XOS), soy oligosaccharides (SOS), inulin, etc. The results show that galacto-oligosaccharides have a wider range of applicability to intestinal flora, a higher degree of utilization by flora, a higher acid production, and a lower gas production.