Issue 30, 2019

Gut microbiota: a new angle for traditional herbal medicine research

Abstract

Traditional Herbal Medicine (THM) has been used for thousands of years, and is popular worldwide due to its effectiveness in a variety of diseases. THM has also formed the basis of the discovery of modern drugs like artemisinin and paclitaxel. However, at present, studies that focus on development in the field of THM are stagnant because currently, the effective ingredients in the herbal formulations and the ambiguity of the underlying mechanisms of action are unknown. In this review, we have investigated the studies available that focused on the efficacy, active ingredients and bioavailability of THM, and the function of gut microbiota in THM-mediated treatment of disease. We hypothesized that most THMs treat diseases via three mechanisms: (1) metabolizing into active metabolites by the action of gut microbiota, (2) regulation of gut microbiota balance, and (3) regulating the fermentation products of the gut microbes. Therefore, focusing on these aspects can help elucidate the pharmacodynamic constituents of THM preparations, and their therapeutic mechanisms of action.

Graphical abstract: Gut microbiota: a new angle for traditional herbal medicine research

Article information

Article type
Review Article
Submitted
11 Mar 2019
Accepted
21 May 2019
First published
07 Jun 2019
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY-NC license

RSC Adv., 2019,9, 17457-17472

Gut microbiota: a new angle for traditional herbal medicine research

L. Lin, L. Luo, M. Zhong, T. Xie, Y. Liu, H. Li and J. Ni, RSC Adv., 2019, 9, 17457 DOI: 10.1039/C9RA01838G

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications, without requesting further permission from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given and it is not used for commercial purposes.

To request permission to reproduce material from this article in a commercial publication, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party commercial publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements