The mortality rate of infants within one year after birth in the 1900s rose from 20% to 30%.
At that time, breastfeeding was not considered as an important issue, but since breastfeeding infants had a seven-fold higher survival rate than infant formula fed infants because they had greater resistance to various diseases including infectious diarrhea, various research began to find out the reason for that.

In the 1900s, Dr. Henry Tissier of the Pasteur Institute found that beneficial bifidobacteria was particularly dominant in the feces of breast-feeding infants compared with that of infant formula fed infants.

In 1928, Dr. Michel Polonowski and Albert Lespagnol of France established an analysis method for specifying unknown carbohydrate analysis and in 1930, they firstly isolated and identified HMO 2'-Fucosyllactose and 3-Fucosyllactose from unknow fraction of mother milk by applying 2D chromatography (2-Demensional Chromatography).

The full-scale study of the human milk oligosaccharide (HMO) was in the 1950s, when a pediatrician, Gyorgy, and a chemist, Kuhn, collaborated.
They found evidence that the infection-resistant ingredients in infants are N-acetylglucosamine (N-acetylglucosamine) and oligosaccharides containing polysaccharides, which are contained in breast milk contributing to the growth of bifidobacterial etc, finally known as human milk oligosaccharide.

They also carried out studies on the correlation between human milk oligosaccharide (HMO) and immunity/brain simultaneously.
In 1954, various oligosaccharides were structurally identified in breast milk and until 1980s, there have been various studies on the growth of intestinal microorganisms and obstruction of intestinal epithelial cell adhesion of pathogenic bacteria and anti-inflammation by human milk boligosaccharide.

In 2000s, a number of functional studies have shown that human milk oligosaccharide (HMO) is selectively utilized by intestinal bifidobacteria as a prebiotics and structurally similar to those of Glycan to prevent intestinal attachment of pathogens, which explains nutritional and biochemical benefits of human milk oligosaccharide.

In 2016, Abbott Nutrient in the United States, famous of its Similac products, launched human milk oligosaccharide (HMO) 2’-FL contained infant formula and in 2017, Nestle has also released human milk oligosaccharide-containing products and exported to many countries.

Since research started in early 1900s and after more than 100 years of long research, we were finally able to mass-produce complex-structured milk oligosaccharide and it is being applied first to powdered milk products for babies who must intake human milk oligosaccharide.

If you can take breast milk for a lifetime, you can enjoy nutrients from it forever but adults can't so far. But prebiotics products based on the core ingredient of breast milk, HMO, have recently been launched overseas, allowing adults to have essential nutrients of breast milk as much as they want.