Prebiotics & Dietary Fiber
High-Activity Natural Tetrasaccharide Targeted Prebiotic, Functional Oligosaccharide for Deep Colon Colonization
Stachyose is a natural tetrasaccharide functional oligosaccharide extracted and purified from the rhizomes of natural Lamiaceae plants including Stachys sieboldii, Eupatorium adenophorum and Stachys affinis. It is manufactured through hot water extraction, membrane separation, ion exchange purification, concentration and drying processes, with its molecular structure composed of two galactose molecules, one glucose molecule and one fructose molecule.
Food Additive CNS No.: 20.017, INS No.: 966, CAS No.: 10094-58-3. It complies with the national standard GB 1903.17-2016 National Food Safety Standard Food Additive Stachyose. Classified as prebiotic, water-soluble dietary fiber and flavor modifier under GB 2760, it is a premium prebiotic of natural plant origin with top-tier efficiency in targeted proliferation of beneficial bacteria, featuring high intestinal targeting utilization rate, outstanding biological activity and highly recognizable natural botanical source attributes.
Main Components: Non-reducing oligosaccharide with tetrasaccharide structure; purified stachyose serves as the core active ingredient, accompanied by a small amount of naturally co-existing raffinose (trisaccharide). Free of rapidly absorbable monosaccharides and disaccharides impurities such as starch and glucose.
Core Indicators: Multi-gradient specifications with refined stachyose content ≥80.0%, ≥85.0% and ≥90.0%. Two forms are customizable: high-purity white spray-dried powder and concentrated plant extract syrup. It boasts a high proportion of active fermentable sugars and excellent purity of fermentable substrates.
Appearance & Properties: Pure white crystalline powder or light amber transparent concentrated syrup, with sweetness equivalent to 22%~30% of sucrose. It delivers a mild and elegant sweet taste without off-flavors or bitter aftertaste. Its aqueous solution is homogeneous and clear, with no delamination or flocculent precipitation after long-term storage.
Stability: Moderate heat and acid-alkali resistance, maintaining stable molecular structure in neutral to weakly acidic food systems with pH 5.0~7.8. The sealed powder has a 24-month shelf life when stored in a cool, dry and dark environment; the concentrated syrup suffers extremely low activity attenuation under low-temperature and light-proof storage.
Solubility: Freely soluble in cold, warm and hot water. The pH value of 10% aqueous solution ranges from 5.0 to 7.0, and the powder shows excellent free-flowing property. It features outstanding compatibility with whey protein, plant protein, grain starch, food hydrocolloids, oil systems and powder compound formulas.
➢ Regulatory Compliance: Legally applicable in China under GB 1903.17-2016, and certified by global food safety authorities including FDA GRAS, JECFA, EFSA and South Korea MFDS. In accordance with GB 2760, it can be added in appropriate amounts as required by production in most food categories, enabling smooth cross-border export filing and customs declaration.
➢ Processing Performance: Stable molecular structure under conventional food processes such as sterilization, low-temperature concentration, spray drying, powder granulation and tableting. Resistant to hydrolysis in weak acid environments and hardly absorbs moisture or agglomerates, ensuring high controllability in formula production and meeting the precision processing requirements of health food.
➢ Health Value: Extremely high targeting specificity; it is only decomposed and utilized by beneficial bacteria deep in the colon with almost no absorption in the small intestine. Effective at low dosages, it precisely acts on the distal large intestine to deeply regulate microbiota in the posterior colon, delivering remarkable advantages in alleviating refractory intestinal dysbiosis.
➢ Clean Label Compliance: Can be directly labeled as "Stachyose", "Plant-derived Stachyose", "Water-soluble Dietary Fiber" or "Natural Prebiotic" on ingredient lists. Derived from rhizomes of medicinal and edible homologous plants, it has prominent natural and organic properties, aligning with the clean label consumption trend of high-end health food.
➢ Synergistic Effect: Produces synergistic efficacy when compounded with FOS, GOS, Isomaltooligosaccharides, Polydextrose, various probiotic strains, resistant starch and plant polysaccharides, further broadening the spectrum of proliferated flora. Meanwhile, it optimizes powder dissolving performance and masks unpleasant off-notes from high-intensity sweetener systems.
As a large-molecule tetrasaccharide, stachyose cannot be decomposed or absorbed by digestive enzymes in the human stomach and small intestine, reaching the farthest end of the colon intact. It compensates for the limitation of short-chain prebiotics that only ferment in the anterior colon, realizing balanced activation of microbiota throughout the entire colon, and exhibits particularly prominent effects on constipation and poor intestinal metabolism caused by dysbiosis in the lower intestinal tract.
Acting as the exclusive carbon source for Bifidobacteria and Lactobacillus acidophilus, it demonstrates far higher proliferation efficiency than conventional FOS and GOS. It competitively inhibits the adhesion of harmful bacteria including Escherichia coli, Salmonella, Clostridium perfringens and putrefactive Bacteroides to the intestinal wall, drastically reducing putrefactive fermentation in the gut and exerting stronger efficacy in reconstructing intestinal microecology.
Hardly absorbed in the upper digestive tract and not involved in blood glucose fluctuations, it has a glycemic index close to 0 with minimal insulin dependence. It can be safely applied in sugar-controlled foods, sugar-free diets and specialized nutritional formulas for diabetics without causing postprandial blood glucose spikes.
Compared with FOS at the same dosage, stachyose produces gas more gently and controllably during fermentation, regulating the intestinal environment progressively. It greatly reduces bloating and flatulence discomfort upon initial consumption, boasting superior tolerance among the elderly, children and people with sensitive and fragile gastrointestinal tracts.
Continuous fermentation by gut microbiota generates acetic acid, propionic acid, butyric acid and other short-chain fatty acids. Butyric acid serves as the primary energy source for intestinal epithelial cells, repairing damaged intestinal villi, tightening gaps between intestinal epithelial cells, alleviating leaky gut syndrome and enhancing the defensive capacity of the digestive tract from the basal layer of the intestine.
With sweetness only about 1/4 of sucrose, it delivers a refreshing non-cloying taste without bitter or metallic aftertaste. It neutralizes the cooling and lingering off-notes of high-intensity sweeteners such as erythritol, mogroside and steviol glycosides, improves the palatability of solid beverages, compressed candies and oral liquids, and never overpowers the inherent flavor of raw materials.
As a premium natural prebiotic dietary fiber extracted from medicinal and edible homologous plants, stachyose serves populations across the full life cycle including infants, pregnant and lactating women, adults and the elderly, with systematic and multi-layered physiological regulatory benefits:
Fermentation throughout the colon acidifies the intestinal environment, stimulates colonic peristalsis and softens hardened stool. It shows intuitive improvement on constipation induced by sedentary lifestyle, degenerative intestinal hypomotility in seniors, slowed intestinal peristalsis after childbirth, and gut dysbiosis following antibiotic administration, helping establish regular spontaneous defecation reflexes.
Repairs damaged intestinal mucosal barrier and reduces low-grade chronic inflammation triggered by incompletely digested macromolecules and exogenous toxins entering the bloodstream. It activates gut-associated lymphoid immune tissue, elevates humoral and cellular immunity, and lowers the recurrence risk of seasonal colds, recurrent gastrointestinal allergies and chronic diarrhea.
The acidified colonic microenvironment promotes dissociation of mineral ions such as calcium, iron, zinc and magnesium, enhancing their trans-intestinal absorption and transportation efficiency. It facilitates bone development in children and adolescents, improves iron-deficiency anemia in women of childbearing age, slows bone mineral density loss in the elderly and prevents osteoporosis.
Inhibits secondary reabsorption of cholesterol, triglycerides and fatty acids in the intestine to reduce lipid deposition in peripheral blood. Slow fermentation in the large intestine generates long-lasting satiety signals, delaying gastric emptying and naturally curbing excessive intake of high-calorie foods, making it ideal for weight-loss meal replacements and blood lipid maintenance formulas.
Strongly suppresses metabolism of putrefactive flora, cutting down the production of toxic metabolites such as ammonia, indole, skatole and phenols, reducing the liver’s detoxification load. It ameliorates sub-health conditions including physical fatigue, halitosis and dull complexion caused by staying up late, high-fat and high-sodium diets, and prolonged sedentary behavior.
Softens stool to minimize friction and irritation from hard feces, lowering the recurrence probability of hemorrhoids and anal fissures, while inhibiting the proliferation of harmful bacteria around the anus. It is the preferred core prebiotic raw material for anorectal care dietary supplements.
➢ Infant & Maternal Food
Infant complementary rice powder, grain puffs and teething snacks: A natural mild prebiotic that protects the immature and delicate intestinal tract of infants, alleviating stool retention, indigestion and dry stool during complementary feeding. Its low sweetness will not interfere with infants’ taste bud development.
Pregnant women’s milk powder, prenatal nutritional powder and postpartum conditioning solid drinks: Relieves prevalent constipation during pregnancy and puerperium, improves maternal absorption efficiency of minerals and nutrients, and indirectly optimizes gut microbiota transmission via breast milk.
➢ Dairy Products
Fermented yogurt, lactic acid bacteria drinks and children’s active dairy beverages: Acts as exclusive carbon source for probiotics to accelerate fermentation, enhance the thick and smooth texture of yogurt, reduce whey precipitation and prolong the viability stability of live bacteria within shelf life.
High-calcium milk powder for seniors, modified milk powder and sucrose-free goat milk powder: Adds functional selling points of botanical prebiotics and strengthens dietary fiber labeling. The powder features excellent solubility and mixes evenly with dairy systems without caking or delamination.
Dairy puddings, cheese sticks and low-temperature dairy desserts: Stabilizes colloidal structure, reduces cloying sweetness and improves system stability during low-temperature storage.
➢ Bakery & Snack Foods
Sugar-free cakes, crisp biscuits, whole wheat toast and multigrain pastries: Partially replaces sucrose to lower formula calorie intake, resists browning under high baking temperature, delays moisture absorption and softening of pastries, and extends the crisp shelf life.
Weight-loss European-style bread, grain energy bars and instant grain flakes: Boosts dietary fiber content and prolongs satiety, endowing products with core gut health selling points targeting weight management consumers.
➢ Functional Drinks & Beverages
Intestinal care oral liquids and compound probiotic solid drinks: Serves as an efficient prebiotic carrier to shield exogenous probiotics from gastric acid and bile en route to the colon, drastically improving the colonization survival rate of live strains and achieving synergistic gut regulation with 1+1>2 efficacy.
Compound fruit & vegetable concentrates, herbal soothing herbal teas and sugar-free sparkling drinks: Remains stable in weakly acidic systems without hydrolytic deactivation, fine-tunes mild sweet taste and elevates the health added value of beverages.
Whole grain mixed powder and plant protein solid beverages: Exhibits superior dispersibility, avoids clumping and paste precipitation during brewing, improves the smooth mouthfeel of powder products, and fits family-sharing instant drinks.
➢ Confectionery & Meal Replacement Products
Sugar-free compressed tablets, gel soft candies and herbal throat lozenges: Features good moldability in tableting processes, masks bitter taste of herbal raw materials, fits sugar-free labeling with low glycemic properties and attaches additional gut care functions.
Complete nutrition meal replacement powder, high-protein meal replacement shakes and intermittent fasting drinks: Compatible with animal & plant proteins and various grain substrates, supplements dietary fiber without compromising the original flavor and dissolution system of meal replacements.
➢ Condiments & Meat Products
Tomato sauce, salad dressing, compound thick soups and ready-to-eat low-temperature sauces: Maintains stable physicochemical properties after sterilization and long-term storage, preserves sauce viscosity and extends shelf life.
Low-fat ham, prefabricated meat products and luncheon meat: Adjusts water activity of products, improves the dry and tough texture of low-fat meat, enhances slicing moldability and mellows the overall flavor.
Single-ingredient stachyose prebiotic powder, chewable tablets and plant extract hard capsules: Premium standalone gut care product highlighting botanical origin, high activity and deep colon conditioning, with higher profit margin than ordinary prebiotics.
Compound probiotic formulations: Core proliferative carbon source to boost multi-strain intestinal colonization capacity, a standard compound ingredient for high-end probiotic health products.
Multivitamin & mineral tablets for seniors and joint & bone health supplements: Creates synergistic effects with calcium, magnesium, zinc and trace elements, simultaneously addressing poor nutrient absorption and age-related intestinal degeneration.
Weight management blocking tablets and toxin-clearing functional dietary products: Enhances satiety and reduces lipid reabsorption, simplifies formula composition and differentiates products with natural plant extraction features.
Weaning milk replacer for kittens & puppies and complete adult cat & dog food: Reconstructs pet intestinal microbiota, drastically reduces stress-induced diarrhea, loose stools and foul-smelling feces caused by feed switching, improves feed digestibility and lowers the incidence of chronic gastrointestinal inflammation in pets.
Functional dental chews, gastrointestinal prescription diets and senior cat & dog maintenance food: Long-term maintenance of digestive tract homeostasis for companion animals, delays gastrointestinal function degeneration in aged pets and reduces the risk of degenerative diseases in the pancreas and intestinal tract.
Food for Special Medical Purpose (FSMP) and enteral nutrition preparations for bedridden postoperative patients: Gentle and non-irritating to the intestine, protects the intestinal mucosal barrier of critically ill, postoperative and chemo-radiotherapy patients, and prevents intestinal flora depletion and enterogenic infection in severe cases.
Traditional Chinese medicine granules, oral dry suspensions and pharmaceutical oral excipients: Safe natural flavoring agent that masks pungent bitter taste of herbal medicines and chemical drugs. With strong physicochemical inertness, it will not react with active pharmaceutical ingredients and carries a high safety profile.
Starter and nursery feed for piglets, chicks and calves: Effectively alleviates weaning stress diarrhea in young livestock, promotes villus development in the digestive tract of juvenile animals, reduces antibiotic usage on farms and improves survival rate and daily weight gain.
Compound feed for fish, shrimp and crabs in aquaculture: Improves digestive and absorptive functions of aquatic organisms, elevates feed conversion ratio, cuts down ammonia nitrogen pollution in water bodies from undigested feces, and facilitates eco-friendly green aquaculture.
Latest industry trends——Be the first to learn about raw material price changes and policy updates
Agree to Subscribe to emails to receive the latest news.
We respect your privacy, please refer to the Privacy Policy for detailed information.
Room 3111, Building 2, Minghui International, No.39 Shiling Road, Laoshan District, Qingdao, Shandong, China. 266061
