Table of Contents

ABSTRACT

Microbes have a paramount influence on various aspects of human life including food metabolism, human health, infectious diseases, chronic ailments, and even industrial beverage production. Beneficial effects of microbes have been well documented since past hundreds of years, but it is only with recent technological advances that the presence and the composition of the diverse microbial communities associated with human body have been described and their effects studied. The present chapter focuses on the importance of the microorganisms as an enhancer of human health. In this article, we have focussed on gut microbiota, and, reviewed its association with normal human metabolic phenotype, various disease phenotypes and metabolic disorders- such as obesity, inflammatory bowel disease, autoimmune diseases, cancer, etc. The chapter also reviews the role of microbiota in development of immune system, its influence on atopic conditions (the most prevalent disease in western countries); and last but not the least, the importance of probiotics, a simple but powerful tool, that influences human health by modulating microbiota.