Interaction Between Natural Products and Gut Microbiota

Purpose of ReviewThis paper presents a brief overview of the potential interaction and interaction mechanisms between natural products and gut microbiota.Recent FindingsNatural products are often described as small molecules and/or secondary metabolites produced by living organisms. They have been important parts of traditional medicine since ancient times and they can show various promising pharmacological effects such as antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and antimicrobial cardioprotective and anticarcinogenic effects. Moreover, it has been recently discovered that natural products and their bioactive compounds can change the composition-diversity and the metabolites of the gut microbiota, and intestinal tight junction protein structure, mucosal immunology, and gut homeostasis which may affect the development and prognosis of certain diseases, and this microbiota-natural product interaction is bidirectional. Besides, natural products can regulate dysbiosis and promote systemic inflammation caused by endotoxemia by various biological mechanisms. However, the unique chemical structure of each natural product differentiates their effects on gut microbiota modulation and indirectly affects health and disease outcomes.SummaryIn this paper, we have briefly reviewed about the interaction between gut microbiota and most popular natural products as phytochemicals origin of medicinal herbal and dietary products, lipid and lipid derivatives as dietary fat and oils, bioactive lipids, plant-derived essential oils and sterols, and biotics as prebiotics and probiotics.