Kabushiki Kaisha Yakult Honsha

Kaoru Moriyama

Hirokazu Tsuji

Koji Nomoto

Hideyuki Akaza

Disclosed herein is a method for determining whether a test subject has equol-producing ability or not. The method involves measuring equol-producing ability of a test subject, wherein an equol converting enzyme gene derived from enteric bacteria of the test subject is detected using three types of primer sets described herein as the primer sets a) to c).

Method for measuring equol-producing ability

The present invention is directed to a microorganism having an ability of converting daidzein to equol in 24 hours of 50% or higher; a food/beverage or pharmaceutical composition containing the microorganism; an equol production method employing the microorganism; and a nucleic acid fragment which can specifically detect the microorganism.

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Saitama, Japan

Kaoru Moriyama