Fruta-do-lobo (Solanum lycocarpum St. Hill) is a native fruit commonly used in Brazilian folk medicine as a hypoglycemic agent. These properties are attributed to their starch, mainly its resistant fraction. Resistant starch has shown to increases the growth of Bifidobacterium and Lactobacillus in the gut, even though not being selective for these strains. In this scenario, this study aimed to investigate the potential prebiotic activity of fruta-do-lobo starch (FLS). FLS showed around 30 % of resistant starch and their prebiotic potential was evaluated with five probiotic strains L. acidophilus (LA3 and LA5), L. casei (LC01) and B. animalis (BB12) and B. lactis (BLC1) in a concentration range of 1.0 to 2.0 % of starch. In a preliminary screening, we evaluated, during 48 h, the viability of the starch with promoting growth agent. An increase in the growth of the probiotic strains tested was observed. We also evaluated the microorganism’s metabolic activity by assessing the short-chain fatty acid (SCFA) production, using the best starch growth promotion conditions (2% of FLS and strains BLC1, LA5, and LC01). As expected, MRS and lactose were preferentially metabolized by BLC1, with the highest growth rates: 0.231 and 0.224 h^-1, respectively. However, for this strain, the FLS growth rate (0.222 h^-1) was 65% higher than FOS (0.144 h^-1). Also, for LA5 FLS promoted higher growth (0.150 h^-1) than FOS (0.135 h^-1). Additionally, FLS promoted acetate production. These data are promising and indicate that FLS may have prebiotic potential and more studies need to be done with pathogenic microorganisms.

Fruta-do-lobo（茄果圣山）是一种天然水果，通常在巴西民间医学中用作降血糖药。这些性质归因于它们的淀粉，主要是其抗性部分。尽管对这些菌株没有选择性，但抗性淀粉已显示可增加双歧杆菌和乳杆菌在肠道中的生长。在这种情况下，本研究旨在研究弗鲁塔多叶淀粉（FLS）的潜在益生元活性。FLS显示出约30％的抗性淀粉，并用5种益生菌菌株嗜酸乳杆菌（LA3和LA5），干酪乳杆菌（LC01）和动物双歧杆菌评估了它们的益生元潜力。（BB12）和乳酸杆菌（BLC1）的浓度范围为淀粉的1.0至2.0％。在初步筛选中，我们评估了48小时内具有促进性生长剂的淀粉的生存能力。观察到所测试的益生菌菌株的生长增加。我们还通过使用最佳淀粉生长促进条件（FLS和菌株BLC1，LA5和LC01的2％）评估短链脂肪酸（SCFA）的产生来评估微生物的代谢活性。不出所料，MRS和乳糖优先被BLC1代谢，具有最高的生长速率：分别为0.231和0.224 h ^-1。但是，对于该菌株，FLS生长速率（0.222 h ^-1）比FOS（0.144 h ^-1）高65％）。另外，LA5 FLS促进较高的生长（0.150ħ ^-1）比FOS（0.135ħ ^-1）。另外，FLS促进了乙酸盐的生产。这些数据是有希望的，并表明FLS可能具有益生元的潜力，还需要对病原微生物进行更多的研究。