Human Milk Oligosaccharides or HMOs are the general term for complex sugar molecules or oligosaccharide occurring in human breast milk and represent the third most abundant solid components after lactose and lipids. To date, more than 200 HMOs have been identified in human breast milk.

HMOs are known to be important nutrient for infants because they are specifically abundant in human colostrum while bovine milk contains little or trace amounts of HMOs. When using oligosaccharides as an ingredient in infant formula, the compounds of the milk powder will be more similar to breast milk.

 Functions of HMO

 Prebiotics

 HMOs are not digested in the intestine and most of the ingested HMOs reach the large intestine to work as prebiotics*, the food for beneficial bacteria in the gut. HMOs are known to support a development of healthy microbiome of infants.

  * What is the Prebiotics?
 Prebiotics is defined by The International Scientific Association for Probiotics and Prebiotics (ISAPP) that 

“a substrate that is selectively utilized by host microorganisms conferring a health benefit.”

 

 

 

              

 Contribution to Immune System

 Structures of HMOs resemble the receptors on the cells that pathogens adhere to get access to human body. It is estimated that more than 40 % of consumed HMOs are eliminated from the gut. HMOs may help remove the pathogens from the body to establish an environment for beneficial bacteria to grow.