Center for Human Nutrition, Department of Medicine, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA.
Nutrients. 2019 Jun 25;11(6):1425. doi: 10.3390/nu11061425.
Spices were used as food preservatives prior to the advent of refrigeration, suggesting the possibility of effects on microbiota. Previous studies have shown prebiotic activities in animals and in vitro, but there has not been a demonstration of prebiotic or postbiotic effects at culinary doses in humans. In this randomized placebo-controlled study, we determined in twenty-nine healthy adults the effects on the gut microbiota of the consumption daily of capsules containing 5 g of mixed spices at culinary doses by comparison to a matched control group consuming a maltodextrin placebo capsule. The 16S ribosomal RNA sequencing data were used for microbial characterization. Spice consumption resulted in a significant reduction in Firmicutes abundance ( < 0.033) and a trend of enrichment in Bacteroidetes ( < 0.097) compared to placebo group. Twenty-six operational taxonomic units (OTUs) were different between the spice and placebo groups after intervention. Furthermore, there was a significant negative correlation between fecal short-chain fatty acid propionate concentration and Firmicutes abundance in spice intervention group ( < 0.04). The production of individual fecal short-chain fatty acid was not significantly changed by spice consumption in this study. Mixed spices consumption significantly modified gut microbiota, suggesting a prebiotic effect of spice consumption at culinary doses.
香料在冷藏出现之前就被用作食品防腐剂，这表明它们可能对微生物群有影响。先前的研究已经在动物和体外显示出了它们的益生元活性，但尚未证明在人类烹饪剂量下具有益生元或后生元的作用。在这项随机安慰剂对照研究中，我们通过比较 29 名健康成年人每天食用 5 克混合香料胶囊与食用麦芽糊精安慰剂胶囊的对照组成员，确定了这些香料对肠道微生物群的影响。16S 核糖体 RNA 测序数据用于微生物特征分析。与安慰剂组相比，香料组的厚壁菌门丰度显著降低（<0.033），拟杆菌门有富集的趋势（<0.097）。干预后，香料组和安慰剂组之间有 26 个分类操作单元（OTU）不同。此外，在香料干预组中，粪便短链脂肪酸丙酸浓度与厚壁菌门丰度呈显著负相关（<0.04）。在这项研究中，食用香料并没有显著改变个体粪便短链脂肪酸的产生。混合香料的食用显著改变了肠道微生物群，表明在烹饪剂量下食用香料具有益生元作用。
