Probiotics are defined as “Live microorganisms which when administered in adequate amounts confer a health benefits on the host”.

The word ‘Probiotic’ is derived from the Greek meaning ‘for life’. The word "probiotic" was not coined until 1960, and was used first by (Lilly and Stillwell, 1965).

Eli Metchnikoff, the Russian born Nobel Prize winner working at the Pasteur Institute is considered as the “Father of Probiotics”.

"The dependence of the intestinalmicrobes on the food makes it possible to adopt measures to modify the flora in our bodies and to replace the harmful microbes by useful microbes" (Metchnikoff, 1907).