Vnitr Lek 2005, 51(12):1351-1355

Evaluation of labeling and content of probiotics available in the Czech Republic

V. Příbramská^1,*, J. Juránková², J. Lata¹, M. Šenkyřík¹, R. Kroupa¹

¹ Department of Internal Medicine and Gastroenterology, University Hospital Brno, Head Prof. MUDr. Petr Dítě, DrSc.

² Department of Mikrobiology, University Hospital Brno, Head prim. MUDr. Alena Ševčíková

Probiotics are live cultures of mikroorganisms which are good for human health and are used in human medicine as a treatment. Advantageous effect on a human health was proved in many studies in Europe and in the USA. On the other hand, many studies described lack of information about products containing probiotics - in particular the real bacterial strain or quantity of bacteria. We tried to evaluate thirteen products containing probiotics available in the Czech Republic. In all cases the leaflets contained information about the species and amount of bacteria (from seven products containing more than one species of bacteria were only in two cases declared the quantity of particular bacteria, in five cases was declared just the total quantity of bacteria). The declared species of bacteria were cultured in all tested products. Concluding; the information on the leaflets of probiotic products is sufficient for a clinical practice and the real species and quantity of bacteria come up to declared data.

Keywords: probiotics; information about a drug; cultivation

Received: June 22, 2005; Accepted: July 11, 2005; Published: December 1, 2005  Show citation