Probiotic Lactobacillus casei Shirota (Yakult)
Probiótico Lactobacillus casei Shirota (Yakult)
- Date
- 1930-1935 · confidence medium
- Place
- Kyoto Imperial University, Kyoto, Japan
- Credited to
- Minoru Shirota
- Field
- Life & health
What it is
Shirota selected a Lactobacillus casei strain resistant to bile and gastric juice and able to reach the intestine alive, and grew it in fermented milk. His drink, sold from 1935 and with its own company (Yakult) from 1955, opened the global probiotics industry.
The idea of consuming lactic bacteria for health comes from Metchnikoff (Pasteur Institute, 1907); Shirota turned it into a product with a defined strain and intestinal viability. The dates of 1930 (isolation) and 1935 (first sale) come from the company itself.
What it led to
- mass-market probiotic milk drinks in Asia, Brazil and Europe
- regulatory and scientific framework for probiotics (FAO/WHO definition 2001)
- clinical studies of gut microbiota