ANSWER
As different studies have suggested, combining Probiotics and Prebiotics in what has been called a synbiotic could beneficially affect the host by improving survival and implantation of live microbial dietary supplements in the gastro-intestinal flora (Miremadi & Shah, 2012).
Below, are few studies that show the advantages of incorporating Prebiotics (Inulin) into Probiotics:-
a. Study showed that additional Prebiotics (1.5%) helped in increasing activity and improves the growth and survival of Probiotics. Prebiotics also help to improve technological properties of prebiotics yogurt. A Lactulose-inulin mixture on the other hand could improve viability of Probiotics in synbiotic yogurt. The sample containing Lactulose-inulin had the lowest Syneresis and acidity (Aghajani & Pourahmad, 2012).
b. Inulin with a value of 1.5% had more pronounced positive effects on Probiotic survival especially Lactobacillus rhamnosus as well as the quality of synbiotic yogurt compared with other prebiotic compounds (Shaghaghi et al., 2013).
c. Another study demonstrated that incorporation of inulin (3%) in an ice cream mix significantly (P<0.01) improved the growth of Lactobacillus acidophilus (Pandiyan et al., 2012).
References
Aghajani, A. & Pourahmad, R. (2012). Effect of Lactulose and Inulin on Physicochemical and Microbial Properties of Synbiotic Yogurt. Annals of Biological Research, 3(12), 5692-5696.
Miremadi, F. & Shah, N. P. (2012). Applications of inulin and probiotics in health and nutrition. International Food Research Journal, 19(4), 1337-1350.
Pandiyan, C., Annal, V. R., Kumaresan, G., Murugan, B. & Rajarajan, G. (2012). Effect of incorporation of inulin on the survivability of Lactobacillus acidophilus in synbiotic ice cream. International Food Research Journal, 19(4), 1729-1732.
Shaghaghi, M., Pourahmad, R. & Adeli, H. R. M. (2013). Synbiotic yogurt production by using prebiotic compounds and probiotic lactobacilli. International Research Journal of Applied and Basic Sciences, 5(7), 839-846.
