A randomised, double-blind, placebo controlled cross-over study to determine the gastrointestinal effects of consumption of arabinoxylan-oligosaccharides enriched bread in healthy volunteers

Table 4 Volatile fatty acid (VFA) concentrations (μmol/g faeces) determined by tertbutyldimethylsilyl derivatisation and GC analysis for forty volunteers over the trial period during which they were consuming control, placebo or experimental bread products enriched with AXOS. (Mean values and standard deviations)

	baseline		control bread		pre- placebo treatment		placebo treatment		post- placebo washout		pre- AXOS treatment		AXOS treatment		post- AXOS washout
Acetate	45.6	±27.9	47.3	±21.8	51.1	±18.8	54.2	±26.4	48.0	±22.5	46.7	±22.3	55.1	±34.5	52.1	±19.6
Propionate	17.8	±13.7	16.5	±11.1	18.2	±10.1	19.5	±11.2	17.1	±10.9	16.1	±10.9^c	17.5	±10.4	18.8	±8.6^b
Butyrate	11.5	±7.9	13.6	±9.4	14.9	±10.1	14.6	±7.2^a	15.0	±10.1	12.8	±8.8	16.3	±12.3^ab	14.5	±7.9
Total acetate, propionate and butyrate	74.9	±44.7	77.4	±37.0	84.2	±33.3	87.8	±6.2	80.2	±38.3	75.6	±36.9	88.9	±52.4	85.4	±31.6
Valerate	1.2	±1.4	2.3	±2.3^a	2.4	±2.3^a	2.2	±1.8^a	2.0	±2.3	2.4	±1.5^a	2.3	±2.2^a	1.7	±2.0
Iso-valerate	1.3	±0.6	1.3	±1.0	1.5	±1.3	1.3	±1.1	1.7	±1.1	1.4	±0.7	1.1	±1.0	1.7	±2.0
Caproate	0.8	±0.8	0.7	±0.9	0.9	±1.3	1.0	±1.4	0.8	±0.8	0.8	±0.8	0.7	±0.8	1.1	±1.4
Iso-butyrate	1.7	±0.7	1.6	±1.2	1.9	±1.5	1.7	±1.3	1.8	±1.2	1.6	±0.9	1.3	±1.1	1.8	±1.3
Total valerate, iso-valerate, caproate and iso-butyrate	4.9	±2.5	5.8	±4.5	6.7	±5.0	6.2	±4.9^a	6.2	±3.7	6.1	±2.8	5.4	±4.2	6.3	±4.5

P-values of VFA changes. Wilcoxons signed rank test was used to determine statistical differences between levels of VFA, as this data did not follow a normal distribution.
a - different to baseline; b- different to pre-treatment; c- different to washout, (p < 0.05).

ISSN: 1475-2891