Abstract
The digestibility of xylooligosaccharide(XO) by juices of the digestive tract and retardation effect of XO on the adsorption of bile acids were compared with fructooligosaccharide(FO) and isomaltooligosaccharide(IO). In vitro digestion experiments showed that any hydrolyzed products of FO, IO and XO were not detected by HPLC after reaction with saliva, pancreatic, artifical intesteinal, and large intestinal luices, and artifical sera for 4 hours at 37$^{\circ}C$. However, IO were mostly digested by the small intestinal juice, and some quantity of FO were digested. XO were not digested at all by any enzyme of digestive tract. In order to investigate retardation effect of XO on the bile acid absorption. In vitro, permeability of bile acid against dialysis membrane was determined in the mixture which contained guar gum instead of XO was set 100%. The premeability of bile acid showed about 50% in the FO and IO mixture and 43% in the XO mixture. The activity of lactase in FO group and activity of sucrase and maltase in XO group in rat small intestinal mucosa were significantly decreased. Consequently, the present results indicate that XO is indigestible in digestive tract and has retarding effect of adsorption of bile acid compared with the other oligosaccharides. The disaccharidase activity of the XO dietary group was lower than that of the other oligosaccharides dietary group. Furthermore, it was suggested that hydrolysis of sugar may be retarded in digestive tract and glucose level in blood may be controlled effectively by the XO.