Evidence map›Paper›PMID 40751848›Full record

ReviewWorld journal of microbiology & biotechnology2025

Postbiotics: an insightful review of the latest category in functional biotics.

Ayodeji Amobonye, Brynita Pillay, Felicity Hlope, Stella Tofac Asong, Santhosh Pillai

Abstract readReview
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Review in World journal of microbiology & biotechnology, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 45 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
45citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from 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.

2 · The registry

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.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

45 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.

  1. ManagingMolecules (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025
    Pooled it
  2. Trial
  3. Article
  4. Beyond Probiotics: Postbiotics for Healthy Aquaculture.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2026
    Review
  5. Review
  6. Review
  7. Bridging In Vitro Functionality and Genomic Insights inInternational journal of molecular sciences · 2026
    Article
  8. Review
  9. Review
  10. Article
  11. Review
  12. Article
  13. Review
  14. Review
  15. Review
  16. Review
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

5 authors.

Ayodeji AmobonyeDepartment of Polymer Chemistry and Technology, Kaunas University of Technology, Radvilenu Rd. 19, 50254, Kaunas, Lithuania.
Brynita PillayDepartment of Biotechnology and Food Science, Faculty of Applied Sciences, Durban University of Technology, P. O. Box 1334, Durban, 4000, South Africa.
Felicity HlopeDepartment of Biotechnology and Food Science, Faculty of Applied Sciences, Durban University of Technology, P. O. Box 1334, Durban, 4000, South Africa.
Stella Tofac AsongDepartment of Biotechnology and Food Science, Faculty of Applied Sciences, Durban University of Technology, P. O. Box 1334, Durban, 4000, South Africa.
Santhosh PillaiDepartment of Biotechnology and Food Science, Faculty of Applied Sciences, Durban University of Technology, P. O. Box 1334, Durban, 4000, South Africa. santhoshk@dut.ac.za.

Funding

This study was supported by grants from the National Research Foundation, Republic of South Africa. CPRR240509218140
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Postbiotics have recently emerged as one of the latest functional food products due to the ever-evolving landscape for microbiome-targeted health interventions. Postbiotics, along with other functional biotics, viz., probiotics, prebiotics and synbiotics, confer their health benefits mainly via the modulation of the gut microbiota. Postbiotics are considered more promising than probiotics as they elicit similar effects, despite being inactivated, thus relegating concerns of strain activity and stability that have been raised about probiotics. This review attempts to provide critical insights into postbiotics by firstly revising its definition to create a streamlined framework for further discourse on the interplay between postbiotics, nutrition, microbiota, and health. Similarly, this review establishes the nexus between postbiotics and probiotics while highlighting that postbiotics can also be derived from other microbes apart from lactobacilli such as yeasts and fungi. Furthermore, an overview of the extraction and production of postbiotics are presented as well as the biochemistry of short-chain fatty acids, enzymes, peptides, polysaccharides, peptidoglycans and teichoic acids, which have all been identified as postbiotic components. Finally, their bioactivities (antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antidiabetic, immunomodulatory, anti-hypertensive, antimicrobial) and the patent landscape of postbiotics are evaluated to promote its innovative applications in the food, veterinary, pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries. Having identified major gaps and areas of improvement, it is believed that this critical review will serve as a guide in the increasing effort to advance the industrial potential of postbiotics.

Indexed as

Functional FoodGastrointestinal MicrobiomeProbioticsAnimalsBacteriaHumansPrebioticsSynbioticsPrebioticsFunctional bioticsNutraceuticalsParabioticsPostbioticsPrebiotics

Identifiers

PMID40751848
PMCPMC12317891

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

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.