Professor Paul Bertrand, an internationally renowned expert in gut and neuroscience, has stated that probiotic health will enter the Postbiotics era in the future, as bacterial metabolites are the most direct substances regulating human gut health.

In 2013, Spanish author Katerina Tsilingiri officially proposed the concept of "postbiotics", and since then, different researchers have given it different names and definitions. Until May 2021, the International Society for Probiotics and Prebiotics (ISAPP) issued a consensus statement on epigenetics: epigenetics are preparations of non living microorganisms and/or their components that are beneficial to host health, not purified microbial metabolites and vaccines.

So, what are the advantages of prebiotics compared to active probiotics?

Overall, epigenetic elements have clear chemical structures and safe dosage parameters. Postbiotics have good absorption, metabolism, and body distribution. Research has shown that epigenetic components are easily absorbed by the intestine, and metabolites released by bacterial cells after breaking the cell wall can directly contact small intestinal epithelial cells, enhancing utilization efficiency. For populations susceptible to live bacterial infections, there is no risk of bacterial flora transferring from the intestinal lumen to the bloodstream; In addition, the epigenetic elements will not be interfered with or inhibited by antibiotics; Extraction, transportation, and storage are all more convenient.

The use of prebiotics can achieve probiotic like effects while avoiding problems such as low bioavailability, unstable efficacy, and easy transmission of antibiotic resistance genes in live bacteria. This is a new direction for future research.