Fructans in higher plants and in human nutrition

The effect of fructans in human nutrition became more and more important du ring the last years and in the same way the knowledge about the fructan met abolism in plants and the production of fructans from plants. About 15% of higher plants and also numerous crops store fructans. The use of fructans i s either indirectly as food ingredients or directly by the use of vegetable s. Fructans are mostly gained from chicory, but the use of Jerusalem artich oke, transgenic potato and sugar beet lines are also discussed. Vegetable c rops like onion, leek, asparagus, and sprouts from cereals contain rather h igh amounts of fructans and may become more important in the near future, e .g. as "functional food". Many foods can be enriched with fructans as dietary fibers without any nega tive impact on the taste of the product, With an additional uptake of 10-15 g of fructans per day, the recommended daily uptake of dietary fibers (30 g) could be reached. Fructans are stimulating the growth of specific microo rganisms in the colon (e.g. Bifidobacteria) with a general positive health effect.