Research Paper Volume 14, Issue 5 pp 2221—2238

Figure 5. Significant changes in specific oral bacterial strains after consuming heat-killed probiotic or postbiotic oral lozenges. Changes in (A) Veillonella spp., (B) Selenomonas 3 spp., (C) Actinomyces graevenitzii F0530, (D) Prevotella sp. C561, (E) Prevotella sp. oral clone FW035, and (F) L. salivarius after consuming heat-killed probiotic or postbiotic oral lozenges were analyzed through the LEfSe analysis. Comparing changes in oral bacterial concentration (%) in participants’ saliva at 0 (before) or 4 weeks (after) of oral lozenge intake. The oral lozenges contained postbiotics or heat-killed cells. Participants in the control group consumed placebo lozenges without the postbiotic content (*p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, and ***p < 0.001 compared with the control group; #p < 0.05, ##p < 0.01, and ###p < 0.001 in reference to the values at week 0). Two-tailed t-tests was performed to analyze the statistical difference of experimental results. Data are presented as means ± SDs (n = 25 in each group).