Probiotics and Health: What Publication Rate on Probiotics, Prebiotics, and Synbiotics Implies?

Abstract

Gut microbiota has been shown to affect many populations' health. Probiotics, prebiotics, and synbiotics have been found to balance the gut microbiota toward healthy microbes resulting in enhanced health for consumers. The goal of this study was to survey the publication rate on pro-, pre-, and synbiotics and determine the contribution from different countries to these fields. All data were obtained from Medline and Web of Science. No time limit was applied in Medline, and in the Web of Science, citation was restricted to the years 1993-2011. The software package of Dr. Biglu was used to extract the desired information.The results indicated a growing rate in the publishing of the mentioned fields in both developed and developing countries, which is predicted to increase in the upcoming years as well.It is suggested that investing more in these fields can help countries improve public health and cut down disease-related costs. é 2016 Elsevier Inc.