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Oligofructose

Overview

Oligofructose is a mixture of short-chain inulin-type fructans. The structure shown is one fructose trimer from that mixture, not every chain the name covers. Roberfroid places the mixture at a degree of polymerisation of about 2–8, average about 4, beside longer-chain inulin (about 10–60) and beside blends such as oligofructose-enriched inulin [1]. Niness describes the same short-chain subgroup with an upper bound of 10, so the bound is a convention rather than a second substance [2]. This page uses oligofructose for that short-chain inulin-type mixture.

FOS and fructooligosaccharides overlap with this name, and they also name sucrose-derived kestose, nystose and fructosyl-nystose [3]. Chicory, onion, garlic, leek and Jerusalem artichoke store mixed fructan lengths. That plant mix is not a standardised oligofructose ingredient, and no food page here has a measured amount. In adults with overweight, 21 g/day of oligofructose for 12 weeks lowered plasma lipopolysaccharide versus placebo. That is a small supplement result, not a vegetable effect [4].

Dietary Origin

Commercial oligofructose is usually the partial enzymatic hydrolysate of chicory inulin: a mixture of glucose-terminated and fructose-only chains in the short degree-of-polymerisation range [1,2]. That is a direct ingredient exposure. Sucrose-derived fructooligosaccharides are a different preparation, even when a label uses the same words [3].

Native plants contain inulin-type fructans across a range of chain lengths. A food that contains fructans does not, by that fact, contain this standardised mixture, and eating the food is not the 21 g/day supplement [1,4]. No food in this ontology yet has a chain-length measurement that would support a contains relationship, so none is linked.

Research Spotlights & Evidence Checks

🔎 Evidence Check · isolated-substance

Are FOS and oligofructose the same substance?

No. The names overlap, but the chain range and the manufacturing route have to be stated before the materials can be treated as the same exposure [1,3].

Read the evidence

Roberfroid’s oligofructose is the inulin hydrolysate with a degree of polymerisation of about 2–8 [1]. Kelly notes that fructooligosaccharides, oligofructose and inulin have been used inconsistently, and that commercial material may be extracted from chicory or built from sucrose, with different chain compositions [3]. A study that says only “FOS” does not identify which of those preparations was used.

🔎 Evidence Check · supplemental-formulation

Does a 21 g/day oligofructose supplement show what fructan-containing vegetables do?

No. In adults with overweight, 21 g/day for 12 weeks lowered plasma lipopolysaccharide compared with a maltodextrin placebo. That result belongs to the supplement, not to onion, leek or chicory portions [4].

Read the evidence

Twenty participants received oligofructose and 17 received placebo, from samples available for this analysis. Plasma lipopolysaccharide fell about 40% with oligofructose and rose about 48% with placebo. Plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 also fell more with oligofructose. Interleukin-6, TNF-α, MCP-1, adiponectin and resistin did not change [4]. The dose is an added ingredient, not a food pattern, and the trial does not show that longer-chain inulin or sucrose-derived fructooligosaccharides have the same effect.

Recipes

no recipes found (no foods contain this substance)

Foods

no foods found

References

[1] Roberfroid (2007). Inulin-type fructans: functional food ingredients. Defines oligofructose as the short-chain inulin-type fraction (degree of polymerisation about 2–8), separate from longer-chain inulin and from oligofructose-enriched inulin.

[2] Niness (1999). Inulin and oligofructose: what are they?. Describes oligofructose as the short-chain subgroup of inulin, with an upper bound of 10 rather than 8, so the cutoff is a convention.

[3] Kelly (2008). Inulin-type prebiotics — a review: part 1. Records that fructooligosaccharides, oligofructose and inulin are used inconsistently, and that chicory extraction and sucrose synthesis do not yield the same chain mixture.

[4] Parnell et al. (2017). Oligofructose decreases serum lipopolysaccharide and plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 in adults with overweight/obesity. Supplemental 21 g/day result in a small overweight sample. It is not a food trial and not a finding about every fructan.