Abstract

As per the old age quote by Hippocrates, “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food” is the ideology of today’s health conscious population. As intestine is a home for more than 100 trillion of microorganisms but only few are beneficial microbes. The prolonged use of antibiotics disrupts the healthy intestinal flora. As a result the healthy gut has to be supplemented in the form of probiotics. Probiotics are live microorganisms have obtained increasing medical importance because of their beneficial effects on the host health. Oral administration of probiotics has multiple effects such as normalization of the intestinal microflora, improvement of the gastrointestinal barrier, inhibition of potential pathogens or carcinogenesis in the gut. Together with the enhancement of systemic immune and anti-inflammatory activities, probiotics may play a part in reducing the risk of multiple chronic diseases including cancer, high serum cholesterol-associated diseases, allergy and many chronic diseases like vaginosis, antibiotic associated diarrhea, irritable bowel syndrome, anti-cholesterol effect, anti–obesity effect etc., Therefore, the present review discussed on the potential preventive and therapeutic role of probiotics with possible mechanism of action. Based on this idea, the current review concentrated on delivering the potential role of probiotic organisms for a healthy gut with their possible mechanism of action.

Key words: Probiotics, Lactic Acid Bacteria, Health benefits, Commercial products