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In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript. Many ingredients in traditional herbal medicines cannot be absorbed by the human gut. Could our microbial inhabitants do for us what we can't do ourselves?

For an unassuming-looking little herb, Panax ginseng has quite a reputation. Pulling the plant from the floor of the forests where it grows wild reveals the origin of its fame — the hairy ginseng root, prized for centuries by Asia people for its medicinal properties.

Dried and ground, ginseng is a key ingredient in the traditional herbal medicines of China, Japan and South Korea. Investigation shows that ginseng is rich in a family of steroid glycosides, dubbed ginsenosides.

Equally clear is the fact that these compounds have no direct effect on the human body because the gut cannot absorb them 1.

And yet, for many people, ginseng does have an effect. For although the human gut can't absorb the ginsenosides, some of the bacteria that live there can. After partly breaking down the compound for food, the bacteria excrete the remnants.

It is these partly digested molecules that are used by the body and that have been proven to have a wide range of activity, from anti-inflammatory to anticancer effects. The human gut is home to trillions of individual microbes representing thousands of species of bacteria and non-bacterial organisms called archaea 2.

The exact membership of this highly complex ecosystem, known as the microbiome, varies from person to person. Indeed, according to microbiologist Liping Zhao at Jiao Tong University in Shanghai, China, for around one-fifth of the population, ginseng will have no health benefit because the person doesn't have the right gut microbes to break it down.

Our microscopic passengers have long been suspected of being active participants in a mutually beneficial partnership. Integral to this picture is the interplay between gut bacteria and health. The global rise of chronic health conditions, ranging from obesity and diabetes to bowel disease and cancer, is increasingly being linked with perturbations in gut flora.

And while modern medicine is struggling to tackle such multi-component diseases, the ancient medical philosophies and practices of Asia — particularly those of traditional Chinese medicine TCM — could offer an alternative approach.

TCM's reliance on complex mixtures of compounds, and its philosophy of treating the human body as a whole, complete system that needs to be balanced, matches up well with the synergistic properties of the gut microbiome.

Herbal medicines can affect health via the gut microbiota in two ways. Like ginseng, a host of herbal medicines are known to take effect only after being processed by bacteria in the gut. The list includes the dried fruits of Gardenia jasminoides , containing the compound geniposide, which is converted by gut microbes into its active form, genipin, another anti-inflammatory and anticancer compound.

Similarly, the root of the liquorice plant, Glycyrrhiza glabra , contains glycyrrhizin, which can be processed by microbes into 18β-glycyrrhetic acid — effective in the treatment of peptic ulcers, as well as having antiviral and antifungal activities 3.

In the other type of interaction, certain ingredients in herbal medicines influence the balance of bacterial species living in the gut. For example, extracts from the Ginkgo leaf have been shown to increase the abundance of beneficial bacteria such as Lactobacillus and bifidobacteria in the gut.

These bugs have been linked with a number of health benefits in the human host; in particular, they can modulate the immune system in ways known to reduce the risk of autoimmune diseases such as diabetes mellitus type 1 ref.

That at least some of the ingredients in herbal medicine exert their biological effects through interactions with our gut microbiota is not a new revelation.

As long ago as the s, Wei Xi, a microbiologist in the Dalian Medical University, China, proposed that the key to understanding the action of herbal medicines in the body was to consider their interaction with the microbes in our gut.

What has long limited our understanding of the role that the gut microbiota play in health was the overwhelming number of organisms present. The only realistic approach is to sample the whole bacterial community at once, says Weinstock. Several large projects have already begun to chip away at the problem, including the US National Institutes of Health's Human Microbiome Project, co-directed by Weinstock, and the European Commission-funded MetaHIT project.

The next big step will be to link big-picture changes in microbiome makeup with particular patterns of disease, says Weinstock. Researchers are already starting to spot links between certain chronic diseases and the absence or presence of specific bacteria.

For example, people with Crohn's disease, a painful autoimmune disease affecting the bowel, tend to have low levels of a bacterium called Faecalibacterium prausnitzii , which is, therefore, suspected to play a protective role 4.

Another bacterium, a particular form of Escherichia coli called adherent invasive E. coli , is more prevalent in people with Crohn's disease, raising the prospect it might be one of the bad guys 5. However, there is more to disease development than a single causative bacterium, says Weinstock. It is this multifaceted nature of chronic diseases that makes them so hard to treat.

But the cell-based approach to medicine in the West is less effective for other kinds of ill-health, he says. Could it be that the traditional Eastern approach to health is better equipped to tackle chronic disease? In fact, as far as chronic diseases go, modern medicines could be part of the problem, Nicholson adds.

Nicholson studies the interactions between gut microbiota and health using a whole-body systems biology approach that he invented called metabonomics — a systemic-wide version of metabolomics.

The team uses analytical chemistry techniques such as nuclear magnetic resonance NMR to map all of the metabolites — the chemical by-products of metabolism — in an individual's blood, urine or stool sample, thereby capturing the cell's metabolic output.

By comparing the results before and after a treatment, metabonomics provides a read-out of the whole body's response to a drug — whether that drug has worked directly on a cellular target or indirectly by interacting with the gut microbiome.

This systemic view is the key difference between metabonomics and the standard scientific approach to examining metabolites using cell cultures.

For the past few years, Nicholson has been collaborating with Zhao, who is a leader in researching the interaction between herbal medicines and the gut.

Zhao believes that metabonomics is uniquely placed as a tool for understanding how herbal medicines work, because it captures the whole-body response to what is, by intent, a whole-body treatment.

Giving people chamomile, for example, changes the metabolite make-up of their urine. These effects remain even when the herb is no longer taken, implying that the change is caused by a lasting shift in gut microbe metabolism. Zhao says that interactions with the gut microbiota could ultimately prove to be one of the main ways in which herbal medicines act on human health.

Given the emerging links between gut microbiome and human health, it is these types of glimpses that are inspiring scientists such as Nicholson to investigate traditional herbal medicines as a new way to treat chronic diseases.

Zhang, X. et al. Google Scholar. Jia, W. Some of the good bacteria that make their home in the gut include species such as Bifidobacterium, Lactobacillus think yogurt , and Bacteroides. Bacteria in your gut that can lead to disease include Citrobacter freundii and Klebsiella pneumoniae.

The study by Peterson et. The herbs examined here were slippery elm, licorice, and a combination of three dried fruits termed triphala.

Triphala may be one of the best herbs for leaky gut. Used in traditional Ayurvedic medicine for centuries, triphala is an herbal blend of three plants: amla Indian gooseberry , Bibhitaki, and Haritaki. Triphala contaias a mild laxativens important nutrients and antioxidants and can alleviate gastrointestinal distress such as bloating, constipation, and abdominal pain.

Triphala is typically employed to help heal the epithelial lining in the gut, to enhance barrier function keeping the gut from becoming leaky , and to improve absorption of nutrients.

Licorice root is often used to help with irritation by providing a protective cover over the membrane lining, and to help decrease inflammation. Research including a double-blind study by Raveendra et al reveals that licorice root contains plant compounds that can alleviate stomach discomfort.

Another study by Hajiaghamohammad et al found that licorice root helped eliminate a bad gut bacteria called H. pylori, which can cause peptic ulcers. Finally, slippery elm is used for healing the mucous membranes in the gut.

Using in-vitro outside the human body methods, the authors found that these herbs helped promote the abundance of certain species of bacteria.

Triphala significantly increased the abundance of bacteria Acidaminococcus and Sutterella. Slippery elm had the greatest impact on bacteria belonging to the family of Clostridium.

Licorice demonstrated an increase to Bacteroides. This demonstrates that the herbs used can act as prebiotics to increasing numbers of good bacteria. In addition, licorice root was able to decrease the population of potential opportunistic invaders Enterococcus faecalis and Klebsiella pneumoniae.

These potential disease-causing bacteria have been linked to the development of a leaky gut intestinal permeability. Future studies in human subjects will help clarify the effect of herbal medicine on gut health. But current laboratory studies help us understand how and why herbs have such an instrumental role in overall well-being.

In this way, herbs for gut health benefit many parts of the body, not just the digestive tract. Antibiotics are types of medications used to fight bacterial infections and kill bad bacteria in the gut, bloodstream, and elsewhere in the body.

Like most medications, antibiotics come with side effects. According to the U. National Library of Medicine, these side effects may include nausea, diarrhea, yeast infections, and skin rashes.

Side effects and adverse reactions can happen because of the way these powerful drugs affect gut health. Doctors figured out how to get rid of bad gut bacteria by creating antibiotics. Unfortunately, antibiotics also tend to kill some of the good bacteria in your gut.

This throws off gut health and may allow unhealthy bacteria like C. difficile to grow out of control. difficile infections can cause severe diarrhea, gut tissue damage, or even death in extreme cases.

These antibiotic-resistant bugs can then go on to infect other people and make them sick, sometimes fatally. That said, taking antibiotics can be incredibly harsh on your gut health.

To replenish good bacteria in your gut after taking antibiotics, focus on maintaining healthy lifestyle habits , such as:. So many factors influence your gut health, including stress, exercise, exposure to environmental toxins, and perhaps most importantly your diet.

Modern research has now confirmed what centuries of Ayurveda and other traditional medicine practices have inherently known for years—that certain herbs and herbal blends can promote gut health. You can kill bad gut bacteria and support healthy bacteria in several ways.

Diet may be one of the most important and most effective. Focus on eating plenty of fruits and veggies, which are rich in fiber and micronutrients that healthy bacteria need to grow. You can also add herbal remedies to your healthy lifestyle for an added benefit.

Your gut microbiome the population of bacteria living in your digestive tract is frequently changing in response to your food, environment, stress level, and so on. It may take more than one day to change your gut microbiome, but research suggests a healthy diet rich in plants and herbs can rapidly improve your gut health.

This can lead to health problems such as C. difficile infections. Poor gut health has also been linked to an increased risk of chronic diseases , including gastrointestinal disorders, depression, and obesity.

Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. Peterson CT, Rodionov DA, Iablokov SN, Pung MA, Chopra D, Mills PJ , Peterson SN. PMID: ; PMCID: PMC J Altern Complement Med. Peterson CT, Sharma V, Uchitel S, Denniston K, Chopra D, Mills PJ , Peterson SN.

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Anti-inflammatory herbs help here too. Demulcent herbs soothe the gut wall and coat it in a thick, viscous gel-like substance that protects the gut wall and promotes healing. In the early days I spent most of my time looking into the antimicrobial effects of herbal medicine. This was very much based on a personal need as I was battling two parasitic infections including Blastocystis hominis and Dientamoeba fragilis and a number of bacterial overgrowths Klebsiella being the most concerning to me.

Here herbal medicine really shines. I mean really shines! The complexity of each herb and the dozens of different compounds that are found within them really come in handy when we are looking to treat gut infections.

Goldenseal is a perfect example of this. It has very well known and well studied natural compounds in it that are antimicrobial and benefit the gut wall. There are more herbal antimicrobials than we can list here. That is a good thing. It means we can avoid the resistance that many bugs can develop when we are trying to target them!

So turning to herbal medicine for gut infections we see some stand out herbs including. This particular herb is helpful when treating small intestinal bacterial overgrowth, parasite infections and in particular bacterial overgrowth in the gut.

It is effective against bacterial overgrowths, fungi think candida and parasites as well. The real beauty of herbs is that they can influence the body in many different ways.

Not only is garlic antimicrobial it is also great for the immune system, is an antioxidant, and can minimise any inflammation in the body.

It can also reduce cholesterol, blood sugar and blood pressure. This is an interesting, and relatively unknown herb outside of the Chinese Medicine tradition. In Chinese Medicine it is known as Huang Lian and used to drain dampness and clear heat.

My personal success in treating the parasite Blastocystis hominis came from combining a whole handful of different antimicrobial and immune enhancing herbs. What about other infections like flus and colds? Here we can rely on a range of different herbal medicines. One of my favourite approaches to dealing with an oncoming cold or flu is ginger.

Lots and lots of ginger. Mix this with hot water and slowly sip it for the next hour. Repeat times per day at the onset of a cold or flu and be amazed! This list contains a number of herbs that are also antibacterial, combat intestinal worms and even promote the movement of mucus and phlegm out of your lungs.

As always looking for the root cause of the gut health issue is the top priority. Next step we look to address and resolve the root cause. Simultaneously we improve the presenting symptoms. In each and every one of these steps herbs can play a crucial role, supporting the body to digest, detox and eliminate.

Have you had any experiences with herbal medicine and your gut health issues? Leave a comment below! Hi, I'm Todd Mansfield a clinical herbalist based in Byron Bay, Australia.

I'm here to help you find and fix the root cause of your digestive troubles. I work with patients in person here in the clinic and offer online consultations as well. Reach out if I can help. Hi, had duodenal ulcer cured by herbalist when standard medicine was on last resort of cut out part of small colon.

Drugs given by standard medicine were basically anti acids. But they do need repeat prescriptions so keep the drug companies in business.

One of the main herbs used by herbalist was slippery elm. But you do need a good herbalist …. Your email address will not be published. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

January 20, 2 Comments. Table Of Contents. antimicrobials australia byron bay dysbiosis herbal medicine herbal treatment herbalist. Legal and Affiliate Disclosures: This post may contain affiliate links. That means if you decide to make a purchase through one of these links, I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.

Learn more here. Previous Post Next Post. Todd Mansfield Hi, I'm Todd Mansfield a clinical herbalist based in Byron Bay, Australia. Could our microbial inhabitants do for us what we can't do ourselves?

For an unassuming-looking little herb, Panax ginseng has quite a reputation. Pulling the plant from the floor of the forests where it grows wild reveals the origin of its fame — the hairy ginseng root, prized for centuries by Asia people for its medicinal properties. Dried and ground, ginseng is a key ingredient in the traditional herbal medicines of China, Japan and South Korea.

Investigation shows that ginseng is rich in a family of steroid glycosides, dubbed ginsenosides. Equally clear is the fact that these compounds have no direct effect on the human body because the gut cannot absorb them 1. And yet, for many people, ginseng does have an effect.

For although the human gut can't absorb the ginsenosides, some of the bacteria that live there can. After partly breaking down the compound for food, the bacteria excrete the remnants. It is these partly digested molecules that are used by the body and that have been proven to have a wide range of activity, from anti-inflammatory to anticancer effects.

The human gut is home to trillions of individual microbes representing thousands of species of bacteria and non-bacterial organisms called archaea 2. The exact membership of this highly complex ecosystem, known as the microbiome, varies from person to person.

Indeed, according to microbiologist Liping Zhao at Jiao Tong University in Shanghai, China, for around one-fifth of the population, ginseng will have no health benefit because the person doesn't have the right gut microbes to break it down.

Our microscopic passengers have long been suspected of being active participants in a mutually beneficial partnership. Integral to this picture is the interplay between gut bacteria and health. The global rise of chronic health conditions, ranging from obesity and diabetes to bowel disease and cancer, is increasingly being linked with perturbations in gut flora.

And while modern medicine is struggling to tackle such multi-component diseases, the ancient medical philosophies and practices of Asia — particularly those of traditional Chinese medicine TCM — could offer an alternative approach. TCM's reliance on complex mixtures of compounds, and its philosophy of treating the human body as a whole, complete system that needs to be balanced, matches up well with the synergistic properties of the gut microbiome.

Herbal medicines can affect health via the gut microbiota in two ways. Like ginseng, a host of herbal medicines are known to take effect only after being processed by bacteria in the gut. The list includes the dried fruits of Gardenia jasminoides , containing the compound geniposide, which is converted by gut microbes into its active form, genipin, another anti-inflammatory and anticancer compound.

Similarly, the root of the liquorice plant, Glycyrrhiza glabra , contains glycyrrhizin, which can be processed by microbes into 18β-glycyrrhetic acid — effective in the treatment of peptic ulcers, as well as having antiviral and antifungal activities 3.

In the other type of interaction, certain ingredients in herbal medicines influence the balance of bacterial species living in the gut. For example, extracts from the Ginkgo leaf have been shown to increase the abundance of beneficial bacteria such as Lactobacillus and bifidobacteria in the gut.

These bugs have been linked with a number of health benefits in the human host; in particular, they can modulate the immune system in ways known to reduce the risk of autoimmune diseases such as diabetes mellitus type 1 ref.

That at least some of the ingredients in herbal medicine exert their biological effects through interactions with our gut microbiota is not a new revelation.

As long ago as the s, Wei Xi, a microbiologist in the Dalian Medical University, China, proposed that the key to understanding the action of herbal medicines in the body was to consider their interaction with the microbes in our gut.

What has long limited our understanding of the role that the gut microbiota play in health was the overwhelming number of organisms present. The only realistic approach is to sample the whole bacterial community at once, says Weinstock.

Several large projects have already begun to chip away at the problem, including the US National Institutes of Health's Human Microbiome Project, co-directed by Weinstock, and the European Commission-funded MetaHIT project. The next big step will be to link big-picture changes in microbiome makeup with particular patterns of disease, says Weinstock.

Researchers are already starting to spot links between certain chronic diseases and the absence or presence of specific bacteria. For example, people with Crohn's disease, a painful autoimmune disease affecting the bowel, tend to have low levels of a bacterium called Faecalibacterium prausnitzii , which is, therefore, suspected to play a protective role 4.

Another bacterium, a particular form of Escherichia coli called adherent invasive E. coli , is more prevalent in people with Crohn's disease, raising the prospect it might be one of the bad guys 5. However, there is more to disease development than a single causative bacterium, says Weinstock.

It is this multifaceted nature of chronic diseases that makes them so hard to treat. But the cell-based approach to medicine in the West is less effective for other kinds of ill-health, he says.

Could it be that the traditional Eastern approach to health is better equipped to tackle chronic disease? In fact, as far as chronic diseases go, modern medicines could be part of the problem, Nicholson adds.

Nicholson studies the interactions between gut microbiota and health using a whole-body systems biology approach that he invented called metabonomics — a systemic-wide version of metabolomics.

The team uses analytical chemistry techniques such as nuclear magnetic resonance NMR to map all of the metabolites — the chemical by-products of metabolism — in an individual's blood, urine or stool sample, thereby capturing the cell's metabolic output.

By comparing the results before and after a treatment, metabonomics provides a read-out of the whole body's response to a drug — whether that drug has worked directly on a cellular target or indirectly by interacting with the gut microbiome. This systemic view is the key difference between metabonomics and the standard scientific approach to examining metabolites using cell cultures.

For the past few years, Nicholson has been collaborating with Zhao, who is a leader in researching the interaction between herbal medicines and the gut. Zhao believes that metabonomics is uniquely placed as a tool for understanding how herbal medicines work, because it captures the whole-body response to what is, by intent, a whole-body treatment.

Giving people chamomile, for example, changes the metabolite make-up of their urine. These effects remain even when the herb is no longer taken, implying that the change is caused by a lasting shift in gut microbe metabolism.

Zhao says that interactions with the gut microbiota could ultimately prove to be one of the main ways in which herbal medicines act on human health. Given the emerging links between gut microbiome and human health, it is these types of glimpses that are inspiring scientists such as Nicholson to investigate traditional herbal medicines as a new way to treat chronic diseases.

Zhang, X. et al. Google Scholar. Jia, W. Nature Rev. Drug Disc. Article ADS CAS Google Scholar. Kim, Y.