Animal experiment:

Mice[1]Male Kunming mice in each group (n=8) are administered by intragastric gavage with saline, stachyose (250 mg/kg bw), genistein (100 mg/kg bw), and stachyose (50, 250, and 500 mg/kg bw) together with genistein (100 mg/kg bw) for 4 consecutive weeks, respectively, and then their urine, feces, blood, gut, and liver are collected[1].

Stachyose is a prebiotic, a non-reducing tetrasaccharide in the rafnose family of oligosaccharides with few side efects.

Stachyose highly promotes proliferation of lactic acid bacteria (LAB) by inducing LAB to produce more α-galactosidase to hydrolyze stachyose[2].

Stachyose may improve bioavailability of genistein via inhibiting intestinal degradation and first-pass metabolism of soy genistein[1].

[1]. Lu Y, et al. Non-digestible stachyose promotes bioavailability of genistein through inhibiting intestinal degradation and first-pass metabolism of genistein in mice. Food Nutr Res. 2017 Aug 30;61(1):1369343. [2]. Pan Q, et al. The Proliferation Mechanism of Lactobacillus plantarum RB1 Stimulated by Stachyose. Curr Microbiol. 2017 Jun;74(6):732-738.