Woodfordia fruticosa extract supplementation stimulates the growth of L. casei and L. rhamnosus with adapted intracellular and extracellular metabolite pool.

Aim: To investigate the effect of Woodfordia fruticosa extract (WfE) on two probiotic bacteria
Lacticaseibacillus casei and Lacticaseibacillus rhamnosus.
Methods and Results: WfE supplementation at 0.5 mg ml-1 and 1 mg ml-1 stimulated probiotic
growth (p < 0.05), enhanced adhesion to CaCO2 cells (p < 0.05) while inhibiting foodborne pathogens
Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus (p < 0.05).
1H-NMR based metabolomic studies indicated
higher glucose:lactate and glucose:acetate in the extracellular matrix with significant variation (p <
0.05) in intracellular concentrations of lactate, acetate, glutamate, dimethylamine, phenylalanine and
branched-chain amino acids and total cellular lipid composition. FAME analysis showed a chemical
shift from saturated to unsaturated lipids with WfE supplementation. PCA plots indicated clear
discrimination between test groups, highlighting variation in metabolite pool in response to WfE
supplementation.
Conclusion: Phytonutrient-rich WfE exhibited prebiotic-like attributes and probiotic bacteria showed
altered metabolite pools as an adaptive mechanism.
Significance and Impact of the study: This is the first report providing insights into the prebiotic�like activity of WfE on gut representative probiotics. The extended metabolomic studies shed light on
the positive interaction between phytonutrients and beneficial bacteria that possibly help them to
adapt to a phytonutrient-rich WfE environment. WfE with potential prebiotic attributes can be used in
the development of novel synbiotic functional products targeting gut microbial modulation to improve
health.