Examining bioactive components of milk. Sources of complex oligosaccharides (Part 2)

Research on human milk has revealed that milk human milk oligosaccharides (HMO) perform important biological functions in the infant, including the establishment of beneficial intestinal microbiota and prevention of pathogen infection. In principle, everyone, at any age, could potentially take advantage of this science by including selective oligosaccharides in their diet to encourage the growth of beneficial intestinal bacteria. Recent analysis of bovine dairy streams by accurate mass spectrometry revealed the presence of significant quantities of previously unreported constellations of complex sialylated and fucosylated oligosaccharides analogous in structure to HMO. This discovery led to the hypothesis that these oligosaccharides can be isolated from bovine milk streams, individually characterized and tested in-vivo for HMO-like activities. This research provides a path to commercialization of foods that improve the human microbiota and represent a means to valorise dairy streams into high quality, highly profitable ingredients.