Praktikos Institute

University of British Columbia researchers have discovered the genetic machinery that turns a common gut bacterium into the Swiss Army knife of the digestive tract – helping us metabolize a main component of dietary fibre from the cell walls of fruits and vegetables.

The human digestive tract is inhabited with roughly 100,000,000,000,000 microorganisms, which amazingly accounts for 50% of the weight of the contents of the lower digestive track. The daily caloric intake that comes from the breakdown of dietary fiber buyer gut bacteria approaches 10%. Researchers from the University of British Columbia, teamed up with the University of Michigan, the University of York and the Swedish Royal Institute of technology to discover how a common gut bacterium helps us metabolize a main component of dietary fiber from the cell walls of fruits and vegetables.

A dominant and useful bacterium called Akkermansia muciniphila is present in the intestinal system of all humans, from babies to the elderly. This microorganism is found in the intestinal mucus layer that protects against intruders. Even more remarkable is that this bacterium has a favourable effect on the disrupted metabolism associated with obesity.

Yale researcher Jose Cordova and Erich Astudillo from the University of Chile (and Founder of Top Tech Innovations SpA) have after working together, discovered a new molecule that kills the bacteria Streptococcus Mutans; long known to be responsible for breaking down sugars in food in the mouth and leaving behind lactic acid which corrodes tooth enamel leading to decay. The new molecule they call Keep 32 (after the 32 teeth in the average human mouth) has been found to kill the bacteria on contact.

Several plants traditionally used in treatment of a variety of infections in South Africa are reported in ethnobotanical surveys. Many of these plants including Ziziphus mucronata subsp. mucronata lack scientific reports to support their medicinal importance.