Effect of Fermented Soy Beverage on Equol Production by Fecal Microbiota

Soy consumption is associated with health benefits, mainly linked to the ability of the intestinal microbiota to metabolize the glycosylated isoflavones into more bioactive compounds, such as equol. Because <i>Bifidobacterium pseudocatenulatum</i> INIA P815 is able to efficiently deglycosylate daidzin into daidzein, the aim of this work was to confirm the influence of soy beverages fermented by <i>B. pseudocatenulatum</i> INIA P815 for enhancing equol production by fecal microbiota. Firstly, fecal samples from 17 participants were characterized in vitro, and we observed that 35.3% of them were able to produce equol from daidzein. In addition, the kinetics of equol production and degradation by fecal microbiota were evaluated, determining that 30-85% of equol is degraded after 24 h of incubation. Finally, the influence of fermented soy beverage on improving the production of equol by selected equol-producing fecal samples and by the equol-producing strain <i>Slackia isoflavoniconvertens</i> was analyzed through a colonic model. Fermented soy beverage enhanced the equol production from <i>S. isoflavoniconvertens</i> as well as the fecal samples whose microbiota showed high rates of equol degradation. The results obtained confirm that the fermentation of soy beverages with selected bacterial strains improves the functional properties of these beverages in terms of isoflavone metabolism and equol production.