Evaluation of the Prebiotic Potential of Caimito ( Chrysophyllum cainito ) Pulp Using the ARIS Human Gut Microbiota Model

Intestinal dysbiosis and oxidative stress are increasingly linked to chronic diseases, making functional foods with antioxidant properties promising options for disease prevention. This study investigated the potential intestinal health benefits of spray-dried microencapsulated (SDM) caimito (Chrysophyllum cainito) pulp as a functional ingredient using the automated robotic intestinal system (ARIS) as an ex vivo gut microbiota model. While SDM caimito pulp resulted in a 2-fold enrichment of total phenolic content compared to the freeze-dried control (FDC), both treatments exhibited surprisingly limited antioxidant activity during simulated small intestine digestion, the primary site where absorption is typically expected. However, both treatments demonstrated significant antioxidant activity within the large intestine, suggesting that the bioactive metabolites are effectively released for interaction with the microbiome and evidence the bioactive potential of the polyphenols from caimito pulp in the colon. Furthermore, SDM caimito pulp proved to be superior to the FDC by offering a more effective and sustainable dual-modulatory functional effect, selectively promoting beneficial metabolic clusters while suppressing proinflammatory groups within the gut microbiota and resulting in a sustained increase in the production of n-butyric acid, a metabolite with significant health implications, whereas the administration of FDC only induced a temporary spike in this short-chain fatty acid (SCFA) concentration. These results position the SDM caimito pulp as a homogeneous, predictable, standardized ingredient and promising candidate for functional food development, offering a potential metabolic modulating effect (prebiotic-like) that should be validated in human clinical trials.