Postbiotics as Potential Detoxification Tools for Mitigation of Pesticides

Pesticides possess a pivotal role in the realm of agriculture and food manufacturing, as they effectively manage the proliferation of weeds, insects, plant pathogens, and microbial contaminations. They are valuable in some ways, but if misused, they can cause health issues like cancer, reproductive toxicity, neurological illnesses, and endocrine system disturbances. In this regard, practical methods for reducing pesticide residue in food should be used. For reducing pesticide residue in food processing, some strategies have been suggested. Recent research has been done on detoxification processes, including microorganisms like probiotics and their metabolites. The term "postbiotics" describes soluble substances, such as peptides, enzymes, teichoic acids, muropeptides generated from peptidoglycans, polysaccharides, proteins, and organic acids that are secreted by living bacteria or released after bacterial lysis. Due to their distinct chemical makeup, safe dosage guidelines, lengthy shelf lives, and presence of various signaling molecules that may have antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-obesogenic, immunomodulatory, anti-hypertensive, and immunomodulatory effects, these postbiotics have attracted interest. They also can detoxify heavy metals, mycotoxins, and pesticides. Hydrolytic enzymes have been proposed as a potential mechanism for pesticide degradation. Postbiotics can also reduce reactive oxygen species production, enhance gastrointestinal barrier function, reduce inflammation, and modulate host xenobiotic metabolism. This review highlights pesticide residues in food products, definitions and safety aspect of postbiotics, as well as their biological role in detoxification of pesticides and the protective role of these compounds against the adverse effects of pesticides.