Coffee is one of the most consumed beverages around the world, and as a consequence, spent coffee grounds are a massively produced residue that is causing environmental problems. Reusing them is a major focus of interest presently. We extracted mannooligosaccharides (MOS) from spent coffee grounds and submitted them to an in vitro fermentation with human feces. Results obtained suggest that MOS are able to exert a prebiotic effect on gut microbiota by stimulating the growth of some beneficial genera, such as Barnesiella, Odoribacter, Coprococcus, Butyricicoccus, Intestinimonas, Pseudoflavonifractor, and Veillonella. Moreover, short-chain fatty acids (SCFA) production also increased in a dose-dependent manner. However, we observed that 5-(hydroxymethyl)furfural, furfural, and polyphenols (which are either produced or released from the spent coffee grounds matrix during hydrolysis) could have an inhibitory effect on other beneficial genera, such as Faecalibacterium, Ruminococcus, Blautia, Butyricimonas, Dialister, Collinsella, and Anaerostipes, which could negatively affect the prebiotic activity of MOS.
Keywords: 5-hydroxymethylfurfural; gut microbiota; mannan; mannooligosaccharides; polyphenols; prebiotic activity; short-chain fatty acids.