Gut microbiota and phytochemical constituents of natural products – pharmacological and metabolomic approaches

Introduction The human microbiota plays a tremendous role in mediating the health benefits of substances from plants, not only in nutrition, but also in case of herbal medicinal products. It has been shown that some substance groups, such as flavonoids and polyphenols, exert their health benefits only after metabolic activation by the gut microbiota and absorption in the large intestine. These interconnections are of special relevance in case of natural products in therapeutic use.

Methods and results The interconnections are exemplified with some characteristic studies. The role of microbiota on the action of the flavonoids kaempferol and quercetin was shown in male C57BL/6 mice that their anxiolytic and antidepressant action depends on their microbial metabolism, thus indicating that these are just only prodrugs [1]. For herbs used in GI diseases, the role of the microbiota in metabolizing phytochemical components was shown by studies in human fecal suspensions using PCoA [2], with a high interindividual variability of metabolism of key constituents, e. g., liquiritigenin.

Summary and conclusions The action of natural products and their phytochemical constituents is to a large extent depending from the gut microbiota [3], and is mostly still unexplored, as recent reviews show [4]. Despite already a big number of studies is available, there is still a large need of further studies.

Publikationsverlauf

Artikel online veröffentlicht:
13. Dezember 2021

• References

• 1 Vissiennon C. et al. 2012, J. Nutr. Biochem. 23:733-40
• 2 Moissl-Eichinger C. et al. Gastroenterology 152, S1: S206
• 3 Khayyal MT. et al. 2017 Gastroenterology 152, S1: S1009
• 4 Thumann TA. et al.. 2019 J Ethnopharmacol 2019; 245