Patchouli Essential Oil and Its Derived Compounds Revealed Prebiotic-Like Effects in C57BL/6J Mice - PubMed (original) (raw)

Patchouli Essential Oil and Its Derived Compounds Revealed Prebiotic-Like Effects in C57BL/6J Mice

Waikit Leong et al. Front Pharmacol. 2019.

Abstract

Pogostemon cablin (Blanco) Benth (PC) is a Chinese medicinal plant traditionally used for the treatment of gastrointestinal symptoms. To investigate the prebiotic effect of patchouli essential oil (PEO) and its derived compounds through the modulation of gut microbiota (GM). C57BL/6J mice were treated with the PEO and three active components of PEO, i.e. patchouli alcohol (PA), pogostone (PO) and β-patchoulene (β-PAE) for 15 consecutive days. Fecal samples and mucosa were collected for GM biomarkers studies. PEO, PA, PO, and β-PAE improve the gut epithelial barrier by altering the status of E-cadherin vs. N-cadherin expressions, and increasing the mucosal p-lysozyme and Muc 2. Moreover, the treatments also facilitate the polarization of M1 to M2 macrophage phenotypes, meanwhile, suppress the pro-inflammatory cytokines. Fecal microbial DNAs were analyzed and evaluated for GM composition by ERIC-PCR and 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing. The GM diversity was increased with the treated groups compared to the control. Further analysis showed that some known short chain fatty acids (SCFAs)-producing bacteria, e.g. Anaerostipes butyraticus, Butytivibrio fibrisolvens, Clostridium jejuense, Eubacterium uniforme, and Lactobacillus lactis were significantly enriched in the treated groups. In addition, the key SCFAs receptors, GPR 41, 43 and 109a, were significantly stimulated in the gut epithelial layer of the treated mice. By contract, the relative abundance of pathogens Sutterlla spp., Fusobacterium mortiferum, and Helicobacter spp. were distinctly reduced by the treatments with PEO and β-PAE. Our findings provide insightful information that the microbiota/host dynamic interaction may play a key role for the pharmacological activities of PEO, PA, PO, and β-PAE.

Keywords: gut microbiota; patchouli alcohol; patchouli essential oil; pogostone; β-patchoulene.

Copyright © 2019 Leong, Huang, Khan, Xia, Li, Liu, Li, Han, Su and Hsiao.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

None

Graphical Abstract

Figure 1

Figure 1

The chemical structure of (A) PA, (B) PO, and (C) β-PAE.

Figure 2

Figure 2

PEO, PA, PO and β-PAE differentially improved the gut epithelial barrier. (A) The treatment schemes. (B) The profiles of body weight, diet and water consumption (n = 5). (C) RNA expressions of p-lysozyme, Muc 2, N-cadherin and E-cadherin assessed by qRT-PCR. (D) RNA expressions of molecules of tight junctions and adhesion junctions. (E) Western blotting analysis for N-cadherin and E-cadherin in mucosa of the treated and the control groups. Full length of the 496 western blots is shown in Supplementary Figure 3 Data is presented as the mean ± SEM. Statistical analysis was performed with one-way ANOVA. *p ≤ 0.05: **p ≤ 0.01 (n = 3); ***p ≤ 0.001 (n=3).

Figure 3

Figure 3

Effects of PEO, PA, PO and β-PAE on M1 and M2 macrophage phenotypes. (A) Relative RNA expressions of M1 and M2 macrophage markers by qRT-PCR. (B) and (C) The relative RNA expressions of pro/anti-inflammatory cytokines respectively. Data is presented as the mean ± SD, (n = 3). Statistical analysis was performed with one-way ANOVA. ∗p ≤ 0.05; ∗∗p ≤ 0.01; ***p ≤ 0.001.

Figure 4

Figure 4

PEO, PA, PO and β-PAE changed the composition and diversity of GM. (A) PLS-DA plots of the ERIC-PCR results (n = 5). (B) and (C) Average relative abundance of the dominant bacterial phyla and family. (D) PCoA plots of GM profiles of the experimental mice using the weighted UniFrac matrix. (E) α-diversity analysis for the GM composition.

Figure 5

Figure 5

PA and PO markedly increased the relative abundance of LAP bacteria. (A) The relative abundance of beneficial bacteria in all treated groups. (B) The relative abundance of LAP bacteria in genera taxon. (C) The relative abundance of LAP bacteria in species taxon. ∗p ≤ 0.05; ∗∗p ≤ 0.01.

Figure 6

Figure 6

PEO, PA, PO, and β-PAE enriched the relative abundance of SCFAs-producing bacteria and affected its down molecular cascades. (A), (B), (C), (D) LDA score for the untreated group versus treated groups. (E) The fold change of the mRNA expression of SCFAs receptors (GPR41, 43 and 109a). Data is presented as the mean ± SD. Statistical analysis was performed with one-way ANOVA. *p ≤ 0.05; **p ≤ 0.01; ***p ≤ 0.001.

Similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Chen H., Liao H., Liu Y., Zheng Y., Wu X., Su Z., et al. (2015. a). Protective effects of pogostone from Pogostemonis Herba against ethanol-induced gastric ulcer in rats. Fitoterapia. 100, 110–107 10.1016/j.fitote.2014.11.017 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Chen L., Brar M. S., Leung F. C. C., Hsiao W. L. W. (2016). Triterpenoid herbal saponins enhance beneficial bacteria, decrease sulfate-reducing bacteria, modulate inflammatory intestinal microenvironment and exert cancer preventive effects in ApcMin/+ mice. Oncotarget 7, 31226–31242. 10.18632/oncotarget.8886 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Chen L., Tai W. C. S., Hsiao W. L. W. (2015. b). Dietary saponins from four popular herbal tea exert prebiotic-like effects on gut microbiota in C57BL/6 mice. J. Funct. Foods 17, 892–902. 10.1016/j.jff.2015.06.050 - DOI
    1. Chen L., Tai W. C. S. S., Brar M. S., Leung F. C. C. C., Hsiao W. L. W. W. (2015. c). Tumor grafting induces changes of gut microbiota in athymic nude mice in the presence and absence of medicinal Gynostemma saponins. PLoS One 10 (5), e0126807. 10.1371/journal.pone.0126807 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Chumpitazi B. P., Cope J. L., Hollister E. B., Tsai C. M., McMeans A. R., Luna R. A., et al. (2015). Randomised clinical trial: gut microbiome biomarkers are associated with clinical response to a low FODMAP diet in children with the irritable bowel syndrome. Aliment. Pharmacol. Ther. 42, 418–427. 10.1111/apt.13286 - DOI - PMC - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources