Royal Society of Chemistry, Food and Function, 10(6), p. 3316-3322, 2015
DOI: 10.1039/c5fo00675a
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Broad beans (Vicia faba) and lupin seeds (Lupinus albus) are legumes rich in a wide range of compounds, which may represent a useful dietary approach for modulating the human gut microbiome. In this work, after in vitro digestion, legume samples were used as carbon sources in anaerobic batch cultures to evaluate their impact on the intestinal microbiota composition and on their metabolic products. The fermentations were monitored by decrease in pH, generation of short chain fatty acids (SCFA) and lactate and the changes in the dynamic bacterial populations by fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH). The total SCFA at the end of fermentation was of 81.52 mM for lupin seeds and of 78.41 mM for broad beans accompanied by a decrease of the pH for both legumes. The microbial groups that increased significantly (P < 0.05) were Bifidobacterium spp., Lactobacillus-Enterococcus, Atopobium, Bacteroides-Pretovella, Clostridium coccoides-Eubacterium rectale, Faecalibacterium prausnitzii and Roseburia intestinalis. This impact on the intestinal microbiota suggests that lupin seeds and broad beans may be used in the development of novel functional foods, which can be included in dietary strategies for human health promotion.