How Do Topical Probiotics Work?
The science bit: How topical probiotics products work by safely and naturally restoring healthy balance to the microbiome.
This is an overview of how our Provilan cleaning and animal care topical probiotic products work. Adding healthy good bacteria to everyday products instantly reduces your chemical exposure, and provides many other benefits too:
Our probiotic pet care and cleaning products are enriched with one of nature’s most powerful assets: ‘good’ bacteria, called probiotics. These helpful probiotics are live, helpful microorganisms sourced from plants. They are sometimes called the 'wellness bacteria' because they provide health benefits for people and animals as well as the environment.
We are often asked about the origin of the name Provilan. ‘Provilan’ is derived from three French words:
Pro meaning ‘For’
Vi meaning ‘Life’
Lan meaning ‘Balance’
In this way, Provilan products do exactly what they say on the label: the added ‘good’ bacteria naturally restore a healthy ecological balance of microorganisms (called the microbiome) wherever they are used. What is more, they are equally effective whether applied to hard or soft surfaces, animal hair and skin, or polluted land and water. Read our news post Microbiome in a Bottle’ – the Role of Surface Probiotics to discover more about the importance of the microbiome to good health.
Probiotic cleaners have advantages over cleaners that use enzymes, even those these products are usually also non-toxic and safe for the environment. Read more in our news post Probiotics or Enzymes? The Benefits of Microbiological Cleaning.
How Probiotics Benefit the Environment
As well as being vegan – sourced from plants such as rapeseed and beans – all Provilan products are sustainable and bio-degradable and PETA-certified as animal cruelty-free. Containers are recyclable and made using ocean recycled plastic.
The helpful probiotics also support the circular economy: They work in a natural and mechanical way that gives longer lasting results, because they continue to work for up to three days after application. Furthermore, they continue clean waste water and drainage pipes when discarded down the drain. Read more in our News Posts How probiotics are eco-friendly.
How Probiotics Eliminate Odours
Unlike chemical air fresheners, the helpful probiotics don’t just mask unpleasant smells with fragrance. They break down the odour molecules that are the root cause of the smell – without polluting your indoor air.
This improves indoor air quality and safety. Read more in our News Posts: How probiotic products eliminate unpleasant odours.
How Probiotics Improve Allergy Management
All Provilan probiotic cleaning and animal care products are hypo-allergenic, non-irritating and suitable for sensitive skin. The helpful probiotics safely consume bio-allergy triggers – including pollen, dust mite faeces, mould and animal dander – as a natural food source. They are sourced from natural ingredients and reduce exposure to chemicals.
In this way, the animal care products significantly improve allergy management in pets and horses, especially canine atopic allergies and equine feather mite allergies.
Likewise, probiotic cleaning products improve allergy management and reduce the risk of symptoms related to chemical cleaning products, including childhood asthma.
How Probiotics Improve Indoor Air Quality and Hygiene
All Provilan cleaning and animal are products are free from harsh chemicals, toxins, pollutants, aluminum, parabens and carcinogens. In addition, they improve indoor air quality and do not emit gases or volatile organic compounds that harm breathing. They are also SGS and EPA approved (Euro Class 1/Group 1).
In this way, they improve indoor air quality for the user, the animals and the building occupants. Moreover, they are safer for cleaning operatives because they do not cause the long term health risks associated with chemical cleaning products.
How Probiotics Prevent Bacterial Infections
All Provilan cleaning and animal are products have a natural, preventative effect against bacterial infections, which can help reduce antibiotic use. The ‘good’ probiotic bacteria simply out compete the harmful bacteria that cause the infection, until no further pathogenic activity takes place.
Read our animal care infection prevention news posts for case studies on enhancing healing in a dairy cow wound and dog and cat bites, as well as solving antibiotic resistant ear infections. LUCAA+ Pet Probiotic Dermo (was Wound) Care has a natural action that can reduce MRSA by 99%.
For cleaning products, read our reducing bacterial infections news posts to find out more. Application by spray enables the probiotics to reach harmful bacteria in difficult to clean and often missed areas.
How Probiotics Protect Antibiotic Effectiveness
Provilan probiotic cleaning and animal care products can provide a supportive strategy to reduce antibiotic use in humans and animals.
Freely prescribed antibiotics, biocides and chemical disinfectants kept us relatively safe for years. Then everything changed. Once treatable illnesses are becoming dangerous again. This is because the microorganisms – bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites are mutating and continually developing resistance to previously effective treatments.
As a result, if we don’t change our attitudes to cleaning and animal care, antibiotic resistant infections may become an unbeatable threat to human, animal and environmental health. In fact, the World Health Organisation believes antimicrobial resistance will claim 10 million lives every year by 2050.
The Importance of Bacterial Balance
If you recoil from the word ‘bacteria’ you are not alone – it has many connotations that can feel instinctively negative; there are often misconceptions around the role of bacteria and they are often misunderstood.
But in fact, not all bacteria are created equal. The community of microorganisms that live in any particular habitat is called the microflora. The microflora contains a mix of both ‘good’ (helpful, probiotic) and ‘bad’ (harmful, pathogenic) bacteria. The right balance of helpful (probiotic) and harmful (pathogenic) bacteria is essential to maintain wellness, hygiene and prevent infection. Probiotics naturally restore healthy bacterial balance, and foster environments that support well-being and immunity.
How Chemical Cleaning Agents Increase Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR)
The problem with traditional chemical and synthetic cleaning agents is that they kill 99.9% of all the bacteria in the microflora – both harmful and helpful. But that remaining 0.1% can be enough for the harmful bacteria to replicate back almost immediately. When the helpful bacteria become outnumbered the harmful (pathogenic) bacteria have no competition. This allows them to quickly increase in numbers and gain the upper hand.
What is more, they evolve, adapt and grow ever stronger. They grow a protective shield and develop resistance. It takes increasingly stronger measures to stop their progression into resilient super bugs. But stronger antibiotics and cleaning chemicals only increases their strength and resistance with every cycle. As a result, these treatments become increasingly less effective. And the environment’s natural equilibrium is slowly being destroyed.
How Provilan Probiotics Reduce Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR)
The helpful probiotics are beneficial bacteria that protect against harmful bacteria in a safe, natural and mechanical way. This is important because it helps to protect the effectiveness of our antibiotics. This is because, unlike chemical cleaning products and antibiotics, probiotics do not push bacteria (and other microorganisms) to mutate and develop resistance to previously effective treatments. In fact, the way they work actuallyreduces antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Our helpful probiotics are non-mutative and restore, not destroy, microbial balance using two natural and mechanical processes:
Bio-Competition: All the bacteria in the microbiome, helpful and harmful, need food, space and oxygen to survive and thrive. They also need warmth and time to work effectively. Our Provilan probiotic products contain huge quantities of carefully selected, helpful probiotic bacteria. When applied to the spaces where harmful bacteria thrive a competition for the resources – and for survival – begins.
Bio-Augmentation: The probiotic bacteria win the competition for resources through sheer weight of numbers. The pathogens die and become a food source for the probiotics. This restores a healthy ratio of helpful to harmful bacteria, with the probiotics now occupying the space. Any remaining pathogens are ineffective because the probiotics are in control.
Read more in our News Posts: How probiotic cleaning products reduce antimicrobial resistance.
In animal care, the helpful probiotics help the prevention of bacterial infections, and can reduce the requirement for antibiotics. They do this without contributing to antimicrobial resistance. Read more in our News Posts and case studies on bacterial infection prevention in animals.
How Probiotic Cleaning Products Break Down Viruses
All our probiotic cleaning products are healthy bio-detergents that are effective against the Coronavirus – but without harming the environment.
The action of cleaning combined with soap surfactants breaks apart the virus fat membrane. The helpful probiotics then safely consume the broken-down virus as a natural food source. The helpful probiotics remain on surfaces and floors for up to 3 days after cleaning and continue to work. They also maintain effectiveness if used with alcohol hand sanitisers and rubs.
Read the Coronavirus News Posts to find out more.
How Probiotics Clean Contaminated Land and Water
Land and water pollution is a serious global problem that endangers both lives and the ecosystem. The Environmental Protection Agency describes bio-remediation as a “treatment that uses naturally occurring organisms to break down hazardous substances into less toxic or non-toxic substances.”
Provilan Earth probiotic product range uses the natural process of microbial bio-remediation to safely clean contaminated environments.
Firstly, the helpful probiotics reduce contaminants by efficiently breaking them down into harmless and re-usable substances. Secondly, they consume them as a food and energy source.
Probiotics are an easy way to reduce poly aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) to below required limits. They break down long chain molecules in chemical additives in hydrocarbons, which leads to the natural bio-degradation of the hydrocarbons themselves. This reduces the need to excavate land and incinerate soil once the PAH level meets requirements.
In addition, Provilan Earth probiotics reduce sludge height, which reduces transport costs and the need for environmentally harmful incineration. This also enables sludge to be used as agricultural fertiliser, thereby turning a potentially costly and negative situation into a positive and profitable one.
The helpful probiotics also make water a cleaner, healthier and safer habitat for aquatic life. They consume organic waste and prevent blue green algae growth.
Learn More
Choosing probiotic cleaning and animal care products enriched with ‘good’ bacteria gives you impressive results.
To find out more, visit Discover for case studies, reviews, research, FAQs and more. Read the News pages for latest developments and the most up-to-date information.
If you have any questions, please email us at enquiries@pure-ingenious.com. We'll respond as soon as we can!