Apple by-product dietary fibre exhibits potential prebiotic and hypolipidemic effectsin high-fat fed Wistar rats

Abstract Apple by-product is an agro-food by-product mainly wasted or underutilized, which is increasing because of the demands of consumers of apple juice or cider. This fruit residue is very rich in dietary fibre, and although the major component is the insoluble dietary fraction (IDF), pectins from soluble DF (SDF) comprised mainly by homogalacturonan and rhamnogalacturonan type I branched with arabinans, galactans and arabinogalactans are remarkable. These polysaccharides are used by Bifidobacterium bifidus in vitro, producing an important amount of short chain fatty acids (SCFA), mainly acetate, as in the case of the in vivo assay with high fat diet-fed Wistar rats. Butyrate was increased 3-fold in this in vivo assay indicating that butyrate bacteria producers can use apple by-product. Thus, it showed a potential bifidogenic and butyrogenic effect that is pursued in the search of new prebiotics. Furthermore, apple by-product enriched diet increased (p