Effect of Gum Arabic on the Fecal Bacterial Mass in Healthy Human Volunteers

Seventy-two samples were collected from two groups of healthy volunteers, 10 females and 8 males, to investigate the effect of gum Arabic (GA) on the intestinal bacterial flora. The fecal bacterial mass (FBM) was measured as an index of the microbial population of the intestine by using the fractionation procedure because of its reliability. The net finding was that 80% of the female group and 75% of the male group showed increases in their FBM either at 2 days or 5 days of the treatment. After cessation of GA treatment, most of the volunteers showed decrease in their FBM compared with their values at 5 days. This decrease ranged between 70% in the female group and 62.5% in the male group. Fecal bacterial count (FBC) results also showed increases in the two groups, either after 2 days or 5 days of the treatment. Two days after cessation of GA treatment, 70% of the female group and 87.5% of the male group showed decreases in their FBC when compared with their values at 5 days. The results of this study suggest that there is no variation between the males and females in response to GA dosing with respect to FBM and FBC.