According to Agricultural Research Service (ARS) chemist Greg Cote, the oligosaccharides have commercial potential as "prebiotics." These are food or feed additives that nourish populations of Lactobacillus, Bifidobacterium and other "probiotic" bacteria that live inside their hosts' colons.

Besides unlocking minerals, vitamins and other nutrients from the oligosaccharides, probiotic bacteria can also make the colon less hospitable to pathogens, such as Salmonella and Escherichia coli, that can cause illness in humans.

When fed to chicks or piglets, for example, the prebiotics could bolster the growth and activity of probiotic bacteria so they would outcompete Salmonella for space and nutrients—a potential boon later on, when the animals mature and are slaughtered for their meat.

Cote, who's in the ARS Bioproducts and Biocatalysis Research Unit at Peoria, Illinois, co-developed the oligosaccharides with Scott Holt, an associate professor with Western Illinois University's Department of Biological Sciences. They envision formulating the oligosaccharides as a prebiotic product that could be administered orally.

Their production method uses a microbial enzyme called alternansucrase to catalyze a series of biochemical reactions that convert sugars like sucrose, glucose or maltitol into different kinds of oligosaccharides.

Depending on which were used, the resulting oligosaccharides bolstered the laboratory growth of Bifidobacterium, Lactobacillus, Bacteroides and some enterococci bacteria, but not pathogens such as Salmonella, E. coli or Clostridium perfringens.