ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Nutr.
Sec. Nutrition and Microbes
Effects of NatureKnit™ Organic, a Blend of Organic Fruit and Vegetable Fibers Rich in Naturally Occurring Bound Polyphe-nols, on the Metabolic Activity and Community Composition of the Human Gut Microbiome Using the M-SHIME® Gastrointestinal Model
Provisionally accepted
- 1ProDigest (Belgium), Ghent, Belgium
- 2Van Drunen Farms and Futureceuticals, Momence, United States
- 3University of Ghent, CMET, Gent, Belgium
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Objectives: The effects of a proprietary blend of organic fruit and vegetable fibers rich in naturally occurring bound polyphenols (commercially known as NatureKnit™ Organic) on the human gut microbiome were assessed. Methods: Short-term (48 h) in vitro colonic simulations using the validated Mucosal Simulator of the Human Intestinal Microbial Ecosystem (M-SHIME®) platform, with fecal inoculum from nine individual healthy human donors, were performed. Purified organic fibers (inulin and psyllium) were evaluated as comparators and a negative control was included. Primary measures included pH, gas pressure, short-chain fatty acid (SCFA) production, and microbial community composition. Results: All test products were well fermented with NatureKnit™ Organic showing slower fermentation kinetics than the purified fibers. SCFAs were significantly increased with all test products versus the negative control (p <0.0001 for all) and NatureKnit™ Organic reached significance versus both purified fibers (p <0.0001 for both). While relative abundances in the mucosal compartment were similar among all test conditions, lLuminal bacterial abundance increased with NatureKnit™ Organic and psyllium versus the negative control, while relative abundances in the mucosal compartment were similar among all test conditions. The latter was mainly associated with statistically increased abundance (p <0.05) of the genera Eisenbergiella and Monoglobus, with an additional strong enrichment of Bacteroidaceae. Furthermore, bacterial species richness was significantly increased with NatureKnit™ Organic versus the purified organic fibers and the negative control (p = 0.0495), which was not observed for the purified organic fibers (p = 0.0567 and p = 0.4285 for inulin and psyllium, respectively). Conclusions: Overall, the obtained results indicate that NatureKnit™ Organic may have a greater and gentler prebiotic effect compared with established purified prebiotic fibers.
Keywords: bound-polyphenols, gut microbiome, Inulin, M-SHIME®, Organic fiber, prebiotic, Psyllium, Short-chain fatty acid (SCFA)
Received: 06 Nov 2025; Accepted: 22 Dec 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Govaert, Duysburgh, Kesler and Marzorati. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Massimo Marzorati
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