The effects of inulin as a prebiotic supplement and the synbiotic interactions of probiotics to improve oxalate degrading activity

Summary This paper examines the impact of inulin, Lactobacillus spp. (candidate probiotics), and synbiotic (inulin + Lactobacillus spp.) preparation on oxalate degrading activity and viability of Escherichia coli . In this study, the lowest viability of E. coli was recorded for the synbiotic treatments of Lactobacillus fermentum BP 5 (59%) and IP 5 (60%). The oxalate degrading activity of L. fermentum IP 5 was 38.18 and 29.60% higher than the other strains after growth in 10 mM and 20 mM MRS ‐ox plus 5% inulin media, respectively. The mixture of three strains demonstrated higher oxalate degrading capacity than the individual strains and showed the same good growth rates (9.43 CFU mL −1 ) as individuals. The study concludes that the addition of prebiotics has a significant effect on probiotics; therefore, a combination of L. fermentum IP 5 with inulin could be a viable probiotic‐based functional food approach in administering oxalate metabolism and also treatment of E. coli‐ related infections.