ArticleFrontiers in microbiology2019
Probiotics: Reiterating What They Are and What They Are Not.
Article in Frontiers in microbiology, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 74 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
74 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 167 citations in OpenAlex.
- Long-term safety and clinical effects of probiotic supplementation in at-risk populations: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Frontiers in nutrition · 2026Pooled it
- The Role ofNutrients · 2025Pooled it
- Lactobacillus GG and other probiotics in pediatric food allergy treatment: a network meta-analysis.Frontiers in nutrition · 2025Pooled it
- Mechanisms of gut microbiota metabolite-mediated gut-heart Axis in heart failure: An integrative study based on network pharmacology.American heart journal plus : cardiology research and practice · 2026Article
- Safety and Effectiveness of Probiotic Preparations: A Contemporary Review.Diseases (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Probiotics in Autoimmune Disease: Strain-specific Mechanisms and Therapeutic Perspectives.Clinical reviews in allergy & immunology · 2026Review
- Supplementation with effective microorganisms in earthen ponds affects common carp growth and abundance of specific bacterial families.BMC genomics · 2026Article
- Targeting the Gut Microbiota with Pro- and Postbiotics: Emerging Strategies against Alopecia.Probiotics and antimicrobial proteins · 2026Review
- The Science behind Probiotics: Exploring their Mechanisms and Therapeutic Potential.Probiotics and antimicrobial proteins · 2026Review
- Epigenetics, bacterial metabolites and type 2 diabetes: a new view of gut-genome interactions.Frontiers in microbiology · 2026Review
- Probiotics: multifunctional microorganisms for human health and biotechnological applications.Frontiers in microbiology · 2026Review
- Microbiotherapy: an emerging adjunct for burn wound healing.Frontiers in cellular and infection microbiology · 2026Review
- In-vitro evaluation of probiotic potential of gut microbes isolated from retail chicken.PloS one · 2026Article
- A portable device for probiotic counting and viability assessment based on microfluidic chip and image recognition.iMetaOmics · 2025Article
- Selection of Probiotics for Honey Bees: The In Vitro Inhibition ofMicroorganisms · 2025Article
- Kombucha: An Old Tradition into a New Concept of a Beneficial, Health-Promoting Beverage.Foods (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Communication between gut microbiota-derived metabolites and the tumor microenvironment.Frontiers in immunology · 2025Review
- Microbiome-immune crosstalk in allergic rhinitis: lung and intestinal microbiota mechanisms.Frontiers in microbiology · 2025Review
- Beyond MRS Broth: A soytone medium towards affordable culturing of South African vaginal Lactobacillaceae isolates.Journal of industrial microbiology & biotechnology · 2024Article
- Article
14 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
It has been over seventeen years since the scientific definition of probiotics was crafted, along with guidelines ensuring the appropriate use of the term. This definition is now used globally, yet on a consistent basis scientists, media and industry misrepresent probiotics or make generalized statements that illustrate a misunderstanding of their utility and limitations. The rate of discovery of novel organisms with potentially therapeutic benefit for both human and environmental health is progressing at an unprecedented rate. However, the term "probiotic" is often misapplied to describe any microbe with plausible therapeutic utility in the human host. It is argued that strict compliance to the scientific definition of the term "probiotic" and avoidance of generalizations to the whole field of probiotics based upon studies of one product, will help advance the development and validation of microbial therapies, and applications to improve human health.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.