A popular product that removes microplastics from the body has been found

South Korean scientists have discovered a probiotic bacterium in kimchi capable of binding nanoplastics in the gut and facilitating their removal from the body. The study has been published in the journal Bioresource Technology (BT).

Nanoplastics refer to plastic particles smaller than 1 micrometer that form from the breakdown of larger plastic materials. They enter the human body through food and water. Due to their extremely small size, scientists have serious concerns that such particles can cross the intestinal barrier and accumulate in vital organs — including the brain and kidneys.

A team of researchers studied the lactic acid bacterial strain Leuconostoc mesenteroides CBA3656, isolated directly from kimchi. In laboratory conditions, the bacterium demonstrated impressive results — it bound polystyrene nanoparticles with an efficiency of 87%, which proved comparable to the control probiotic strain.

However, the most interesting findings emerged under conditions simulating the human gut environment. The control bacterium's ability to bind nanoplastics plummeted to 3%, while the kimchi-derived strain maintained a level of 57% — nearly twenty times higher.

In the next phase, the scientists tested the effect on germ-free mice. In animals that received the probiotic, the nanoplastic content in feces was more than twice as high compared to the control group. According to the researchers, this indicates that plastic particles are excreted through the gut after being bound by the bacteria.

"Plastic pollution is increasingly being viewed not only as an environmental problem but also as a real threat to public health. Our results show that microorganisms from traditional fermented foods could become a fundamentally new biological approach to addressing this problem," emphasized the lead researcher Se Hee Lee.

At the same time, the study's authors note a caveat: the research is at an early stage. So far, the results have been obtained exclusively in laboratory experiments and animal models, and the bacterium's impact on nanoplastic accumulation in the human body has yet to be studied.