Modern Research Center for Traditional Chinese Medicine, the Key Laboratory of Chemical Biology and Molecular Engineering of Ministry of Education, Shanxi University, Taiyuan, P. R. China.
Shanxi Institute of Medicine and Life Science, Taiyuan, P. R. China.
J Sci Food Agric. 2022 Sep;102(12):5141-5152. doi: 10.1002/jsfa.11866. Epub 2022 Mar 31.
Astragali Radix (AR) and Codonopsis Radix (CR) are widely used as the tonic herbal medicine with efficacy of tonifying qi in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), which showed significant antifatigue activities. In this study, AR and CR were combined, with Jujubae Fructus (JF) further added to improve the taste, to afford the ACJ extracts in the ratio of 2:1:2.
The results showed that ACJ water extract exhibited antifatigue effect by the weight-loaded exhaustive swimming test in mice. The untargeted fecal metabolomic approach and 16S rRNA gene sequencing analysis showed that ACJ could improve exercise performance by regulating changes of gut metabolites and microbiota to alleviate fatigue. Four pathways were determined as the key pathways relating with its antifatigue effect, which included sphingolipid metabolism, glycerophospholipid metabolism, valine, leucine and isoleucine biosynthesis and d-arginine and d-ornithine metabolism. Correlation analysis showed the complex association among bacteria, metabolites and phenotypes.
In conclusion, this study revealed new perspectives to study the antifatigue mechanism of ACJ extracts from the gut microbiota, which provided the basis for further functional food development. © 2022 Society of Chemical Industry.
黄芪（AR）和党参（CR）作为中药中具有补气功效的滋补草药被广泛应用，具有显著的抗疲劳作用。在这项研究中，将 AR 和 CR 组合，加入大枣（JF）以改善口感，得到 ACJ 提取物，其比例为 2:1:2。
结果表明，ACJ 水提物通过小鼠负重游泳试验表现出抗疲劳作用。非靶向粪便代谢组学方法和 16S rRNA 基因测序分析表明，ACJ 通过调节肠道代谢物和微生物群的变化来改善运动表现，从而缓解疲劳。确定了 4 条与抗疲劳作用相关的关键途径，包括鞘脂代谢、甘油磷脂代谢、缬氨酸、亮氨酸和异亮氨酸生物合成以及 d-精氨酸和 d-鸟氨酸代谢。相关性分析表明细菌、代谢物和表型之间存在复杂的关联。
综上所述，本研究从肠道微生物群的角度揭示了研究 ACJ 提取物抗疲劳机制的新视角，为进一步开发功能性食品提供了依据。© 2022 英国化学学会。
