Editing Probiotic (section)

== History ==
Probiotics have received renewed attention in the 21st century from product manufacturers, research studies, and consumers. The history of probiotics dates back to ancient times, with the consumption of [[fermented food]]s being a common practice across various [[civilization]]s. Different types of [[fermented milk]] products were invented in different [[generation]]s, such as [[Kefir]] in 5000 BC and [[Yeast]] usage in 5000 BC. Their history can be traced to the first use of cheese and fermented products, which were well-known to the [[Greeks]] and [[Roman people|Romans]] who recommended their consumption.<ref name="pmid10493604">{{Cite journal |vauthors=Gismondo MR, Drago L, Lombardi A |year=1999 |title=Review of probiotics available to modify gastrointestinal flora |journal=Int. J. Antimicrob. Agents |volume=12 |issue=4 |pages=287–292 |doi=10.1016/s0924-8579(99)00050-3 |pmid=10493604}}</ref> The [[fermentation]] of dairy foods represents one of the oldest techniques for [[food preservation]].<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Tortora |first1=Gerard J. |url=https://archive.org/details/microbiologyintr00tort_505 |title=Microbiology An Introduction |last2=Funke |first2=Berdell R. |last3=Case |first3=Christine L. |date=2010 |publisher=Pearson Benjamin Cummings |isbn=978-0-321-58202-7 |edition=10th |location=San Francisco, CA |page=[https://archive.org/details/microbiologyintr00tort_505/page/n167 135] |chapter=5 |ref=31 |url-access=limited}}<!--|access-date=9 December 2014--></ref>

[[File:Ilya Ilyich Mechnikov 1913.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Élie Metchnikoff]] first suggested the possibility of colonizing the gut with beneficial bacteria in the early 20th century.]]
The original modern hypothesis of the positive role played by certain bacteria was first introduced by [[Russians|Russian]] scientist and [[Nobel Prize]] laureate [[Élie Metchnikoff]], who in 1907 suggested that it would be possible to modify the [[gut flora|gut microbiota]] and to replace harmful microbes with useful microbes.<ref name="Metchnikoff">{{Cite book |last=Metchnikoff |first=Elie |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/287028845 |title=The prolongation of life : optimistic studies |date=2004 |publisher=Springer Pub |others=P. Chalmers, Sir Mitchell |isbn=978-0-8261-1877-6 |location=New York |oclc=287028845 |access-date=2022-10-31 |archive-date=2023-07-01 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230701214654/https://www.worldcat.org/title/287028845 |url-status=live }}{{page needed|date=January 2024}}</ref> Metchnikoff proposed that consumption of [[fermented milk]] would "seed" the [[intestine]] with harmless lactic-acid bacteria and decrease the intestinal pH, and that this would suppress the growth of proteolytic bacteria.<ref name="Vaughan">{{Cite journal |last=Vaughan |first=RB |date=July 1965 |title=The romantic rationalist: A study of Elie Metchnikoff |journal=Medical History |volume=9 |issue=3 |pages=201–215 |doi=10.1017/S0025727300030702 |pmc=1033501 |pmid=14321564}}</ref>

[[Bifidobacteria]] was first isolated from a breastfed infant by Henry Tissier, who also worked at the [[Pasteur Institute]]. The isolated bacterium named ''Bacillus bifidus communis''<ref name="Tissier">Tissier, H. 1900. Recherchers sur la flora intestinale normale et pathologique du nourisson. Thesis, University of Paris, Paris, France.</ref> was later renamed to the genus ''Bifidobacterium''.<ref>{{Cite journal |title=Probiotic Mechanisms of Action |year=2012 |doi=10.1159/000342079 |pmid=23037511 |url=https://www.karger.com/article/fulltext/342079 |access-date=29 December 2020 |last1=Bermudez-Brito |first1=Miriam |last2=Plaza-Díaz |first2=Julio |last3=Muñoz-Quezada |first3=Sergio |last4=Gómez-Llorente |first4=Carolina |last5=Gil |first5=Angel |journal=Annals of Nutrition and Metabolism |volume=61 |issue=2 |pages=160–174 |s2cid=1295886 |doi-access=free |archive-date=25 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210525180409/https://www.karger.com/Article/FullText/342079 |url-status=live }}</ref> Tissier found that bifidobacteria are dominant in the gut microbiota of [[Breastfeeding|breast-fed]] babies and he observed clinical benefits from treating infant diarrhea with bifidobacteria.

During an outbreak of [[shigellosis]] in 1917, German professor Alfred Nissle isolated a strain of ''[[Escherichia coli]]'' from the feces of a soldier who was not affected by the disease.<ref name="Nissle1918">{{Cite journal |last=Nißle |first=Alfred |year=1918 |title=Die antagonistische Behandlung chronischer Darmstörungen mit Colibakterien |journal=Medizinische Klinik |volume=1918 |issue=2 |pages=29–33}}</ref> Methods of treating infectious diseases were needed at that time when antibiotics were not yet available, and Nissle used the [[Escherichia coli Nissle 1917|''E. coli'' Nissle 1917 strain]] in acute gastrointestinal infectious [[salmonellosis]] and [[shigellosis]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Altenhoefer |first1=Artur |last2=Oswald |first2=Sibylle |last3=Sonnenborn |first3=Ulrich |last4=Enders |first4=Corinne |last5=Schulze |first5=Juergen |last6=Hacker |first6=Joerg |last7=Oelschlaeger |first7=Tobias A |date=April 2004 |title=The probiotic Escherichia coli strain Nissle 1917 interferes with invasion of human intestinal epithelial cells by different enteroinvasive bacterial pathogens |journal=FEMS Immunology & Medical Microbiology |language=en |volume=40 |issue=3 |pages=223–229 |doi=10.1016/S0928-8244(03)00368-7 |pmid=15039098 |doi-access=free}}</ref>

In 1920, Rettger and Cheplin reported that Metchnikoff's "Bulgarian Bacillus", later called ''Lactobacillus delbrueckii ''subsp.'' bulgaricus'', could not live in the human intestine.<ref name="Cheplin">{{Cite journal |vauthors=Cheplin HA, Rettger LF |date=December 1920 |title=Studies on the Transformation of the Intestinal Flora, with Special Reference to the Implantation of Bacillus Acidophilus: II. Feeding Experiments on Man |journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America |volume=6 |issue=12 |pages=704–705 |bibcode=1920PNAS....6..704C |doi=10.1073/pnas.6.12.704 |pmc=1084701 |pmid=16576567 |doi-access=free}}</ref>{{Primary source inline|date=December 2011}} They conducted experiments involving rats and humans volunteers, feeding them with ''Lactobacillus acidophilus''. They observed the disappearance of the pathogenic protist [[Balantidium coli]] as well as of other gas-producing bacteria.<ref name="Cheplin" /> Rettger further explored the possibilities of ''L. acidophilus'', and reasoned that bacteria originating from the gut were more likely to produce the desired effect in this environment. In 1935, certain strains of ''L. acidophilus'' were found very active when implanted in the human digestive tract.<ref name="Rettger">{{Cite book |last=Rettger |first=Frederick Leo |url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/250265817 |title=Lactobacillus acidophilus & its therapeutic application |date=1935 |publisher=Yale Univ. Pr |oclc=250265817 |access-date=2022-10-31 |archive-date=2023-07-01 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230701214657/https://worldcat.org/title/250265817 |url-status=live }}</ref>{{Primary source inline|date=December 2011}}

Contrasting antibiotics, probiotics were defined as microbially derived factors that stimulate the growth of other microorganisms. In 1989, Roy Fuller suggested a definition of probiotics that have been widely used: "A live microbial feed supplement which beneficially affects the host animal by improving its intestinal microbial balance."<ref name="Fuller_1989">{{Cite journal |last=Fuller |first=R |date=May 1989 |title=Probiotics in man and animals |journal=The Journal of Applied Bacteriology |volume=66 |issue=5 |pages=365–378 |doi=10.1111/j.1365-2672.1989.tb05105.x |pmid=2666378 |doi-access=free}}</ref> Fuller's definition emphasizes the requirement of viability for probiotics and introduces the aspect of a beneficial effect on the host.

The term "probiotic" originally referred to microorganisms that have effects on other microorganisms.<ref name="lilly1965">{{Cite journal |vauthors=Lilly DM, Stillwell RH |year=1965 |title=Probiotics: Growth-promoting factors produced by microorganisms |journal=Science |volume=147 |issue=3659 |pages=747–748 |bibcode=1965Sci...147..747L |doi=10.1126/science.147.3659.747 |pmid=14242024 |s2cid=26826201}}</ref> The concept of probiotics involved the notion that substances secreted by one microorganism stimulated the growth of another microorganism. The term was used again<ref>{{Cite book |last=Sperti |first=G. S. |title=Probiotics |publisher=AVI Publishing Co. |year=1971 |isbn=978-0-87055-099-7 |location=West Point, CT}}{{page needed|date=January 2024}}</ref> to describe tissue extracts that stimulated microbial growth. The term probiotics was taken up by Parker,<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Parker |first=R. B. |year=1974 |title=Probiotics, the other half of the antibiotic story |journal=Animal Nutrition and Health |volume=29 |pages=4–8}}</ref> who defined the concept as, "Organisms and substances that have a beneficial effect on the host animal by contributing to its intestinal microbial balance." Later, the definition was improved by Fuller,<ref name="Fuller_1989" /> whose explanation was similar to the Fuller description of probiotics as a "live microbial feed supplement which beneficially affects the host animal by improving its intestinal microbial balance." He stressed two important claims for probiotics: the viable nature of probiotics and the capacity to help with intestinal balance.

In the following decades, intestinal lactic-acid bacterial species with alleged health-beneficial properties were introduced as probiotics, including ''[[Lactobacillus rhamnosus]]'', ''[[Lactobacillus casei]]'', and ''[[Lactobacillus johnsonii]]''.<ref name="Tannock">{{Cite journal |last=Tannock |first=GW |date=September 2003 |title=Probiotics: time for a dose of realism |journal=Current Issues in Intestinal Microbiology |volume=4 |issue=2 |pages=33–42 |pmid=14503687}}</ref>

=== Etymology ===
Some literature gives the word a Greek [[etymology]],<ref>{{Cite book |last=Fuller |first=Roy |url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/958540533 |title=Probiotics: the scientific basis. |date=2012 |publisher=Springer Netherlands |isbn=978-94-011-2364-8 |oclc=958540533 |access-date=2022-10-31 |archive-date=2023-07-01 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230701214701/https://worldcat.org/title/958540533 |url-status=live }}{{page needed|date=January 2024}}</ref><ref name="pmid11340528">{{Cite journal |vauthors=Alvarez-Olmos MI, Oberhelman RA |year=2001 |title=Probiotic agents and infectious diseases: a modern perspective on a traditional therapy |journal=Clin. Infect. Dis. |volume=32 |issue=11 |pages=1567–1576 |doi=10.1086/320518 |pmid=11340528 |doi-access=free}}</ref> but it appears to be a composite of the Latin preposition ''pro'', meaning 'for', and the Greek adjective βιωτικός (''biōtikos''), meaning 'fit for life, lively',<ref>{{Cite book |title=A Greek-English Lexicon |editor-last=Liddell |editor-first=Henry George |chapter=βιωτικός |editor-last2=Scott |editor-first2=Robert |chapter-url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3Dbiwtiko%2Fs |via=[[Perseus Project]] |access-date=2021-02-21 |archive-date=2023-04-25 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230425182154/https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0057:entry%3Dbiwtiko/s |url-status=live }}</ref> the latter deriving from the noun βίος (''bios''), meaning 'life'.<ref name="Hamilton-Miller_2003">{{Cite journal |vauthors=Hamilton-Miller JM, Gibson GR, Bruck W |date=October 2003 |title=Some insights into the derivation and early uses of the word 'probiotic' |journal=Br. J. Nutr. |volume=90 |issue=4 |page=845 |doi=10.1079/BJN2003954 |pmid=14552330 |doi-access=free}}</ref>