The prebiotics concept was introduced for the first time in 1995 by Glenn Gibson and Marcel Roberfroid. Prebiotic was described as “a non-digestible food ingredient that beneficially affects the host by selectively stimulating the growth and/or activity of one or a limited number of bacteria in the colon, and thus improves host health”.Prebiotics are a group of nutrients that are degraded by gut microbiota. Their relationship with human overall health has been an area of increasing interest in recent years. They can feed the intestinal microbiota, and their degradation products are short-chain fatty acids that are released into blood circulation, consequently, affecting not only the gastrointestinal tracts but also other distant organs. Fructo-oligosaccharides and galacto-oligosaccharides are the two important groups of prebiotics with beneficial effects on human health. Since low quantities of fructo-oligosaccharides and galacto-oligosaccharides naturally exist in foods, supplementing with prebiotics has considerable health benefits. 

PreticX® is a new prebiotic XOS (xylooligosaccharide). It has been shown in clinical studies to significantly increase the proliferation of bifidobacterium in both low and high doses. PreticX is classified as a prebiotic, and is a non-GMO corn-derived form of oligosaccharides called xylooligosaccharides or XOS, comprising a group of polysaccharides called xylans. Xylans are common constituents of plant cell walls based on xylose, a pentose sugar.

A prebiotic is not a living organism; it is a nondigestible food ingredient that promotes the growth of "good bacteria" already present in the gut. Prebiotics, such as those found in complex carbohydrates, feed probiotic bacteria, while others provide support in different ways (such as clearing out bad bacteria to make room for good ones).