Comprehensive insights into postbiotics: Bridging the gap to real-world application

Abstract

Postbiotics, derived from non-viable microorganisms and their metabolites, have emerged as a promising frontier in functional foods and pharmaceuticals. This review provides a comprehensive overview of postbiotics and bridges the gap between current research and real-world applications. The concept of postbiotics is defined, and their modes of action are elucidated, including epithelial barrier modification, inflammatory response modulation, systemic metabolism regulation, nervous system communication, and protective effects against infections. Various types of postbiotics are categorized based on their structural components and physiological functions. Production techniques are detailed, emphasizing the critical steps of microbial biosynthesis, inactivation, and metabolite isolation. The impact of these techniques on postbiotic applications is discussed. The diverse applications of postbiotics are explored, spanning the food industry, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, and clinical and veterinary medicine. Postbiotics offer advantages such as natural preservatives, bioactive compounds, and functional ingredients in food products. They also show potential in treating skin conditions, oral health issues, and various diseases. The market potential of postbiotics is highlighted, with projections indicating robust growth in the coming years. However, challenges related to regulatory frameworks, standardization, and dosage optimization are addressed. Future research should focus on the characterization of specific bioactive molecules, clinical validation of health effects, and enhancement of industrial scalability, along with the optimization of production protocols and establishment of comprehensive safety and efficacy standards to enable the real-world application of postbiotics. • Postbiotics are inanimate microbes and/or their components with proven health benefits. • They support gut barrier integrity, immune modulation, metabolic regulation, and brain-gut signaling. • Production includes fermentation, inactivation, metabolite isolation, and analysis. • Applications span food, pharma, cosmetics, oral health, and clinical sectors. • Key challenges include bioactive identification, clinical validation, and regulation.