Research Article Market Assessment and Product Evaluation of Probiotic Containing Dietary Supplements Available in Bangladesh Market Anjuman Ara Begum, 1 D. M. Jakaria, 1 Sharif Md Anisuzzaman, 1 Mahfuzul Islam, 1 and Siraje Arif Mahmud 2 1 Department of Pharmacy, Jahangirnagar University, Savar, Dhaka 1342, Bangladesh 2 Department of Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering, Jahangirnagar University, Savar, Dhaka 1342, Bangladesh Correspondence should be addressed to Anjuman Ara Begum; anjumantanya@yahoo.com Received 11 July 2015; Accepted 25 October 2015 Academic Editor: Andrea Masotti Copyright © 2015 Anjuman Ara Begum et al. Tis is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Probiotics containing food supplements available in Bangladesh market were identifed and collected for assessment. To assess their label claim, they were resuspended into sterile distilled water. Ten, series dilutions of each sample solution were prepared and immediately plated out, in duplicate, into De Man Rogosa Sharpe (MRS) agar. Tese plates were then incubated at 37 ∘ C for 48 hours and colonies were counted. Viable cell numbers stated on the labels were compared with actual viable cell numbers. To assess the viability of the probiotics included in the products, probiotic strains were isolated from each of the four products and screened for inhibitory activity against six indicator strains. It was surprisingly found that although the viable cell numbers of all supplements were three to four log cycles lower than label claim of the products, however, this problem did not afect the inhibitory activity of the probiotic strains against indicator strains according to in vitro assessment. Legislation and regulation regarding prebiotic-probiotic containing products should be built up in Bangladesh to ensure quality products supply to the consumers. Moreover, manufacturers of probiotic containing products should take the responsibility for providing the consumer with scientifcally and legally correct information. 1. Introduction Te role of the diet is to provide nutrients to meet host phys- iological requirements. Te concept of functional foods has been evolved recently afer extensive research to fnd out the role of nutrients on health [1]. Functional foods contain phys- iologically active components, which provide health benefts beyond basic nutrition by afecting one or more functions in the body in a targeted way [2]. “Te functional component could include essential macronutrient with specifc physio- logical efect and components that have some nutritive value but are not classifed as ‘essential’, such as oligosaccharides, or food components with no nutritive value, such as live microorganisms or plant chemicals” [3]. A dietary supple- ment is a product intended for ingestion as a supplement to the diet and it can be manufactured as pills, tablets, capsules, gel caps, liquids, and powders [4]. Dietary supplements or functional foods contain vitamins, micronutrients, antioxi- dants, certain bioactive peptides, herbs, polyunsaturated fatty acids, and so forth. Te concept has now moved markedly towards gastrointestinal function, in particular the impact of gut bacteria. Te most frequently used dietary method of infuencing the gut fora composition is that of probiotics. Probiotics are live microorganisms (in most cases, bacteria) that are similar to benefcial microorganisms found in the human gut. According to FAO/WHO (Food and Agriculture Organization and World Health Organization), probiotics are defned as “live microorganisms which when administered in adequate amounts confer a health beneft on the host” [5]. Over 100,000 billion bacteria (more than 500 species) live in Hindawi Publishing Corporation Journal of Pharmaceutics Volume 2015, Article ID 763796, 5 pages http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2015/763796