Root extract eases stroke damage by fixing gut bacteria
Li Y, Zhang J, Li S, Zhu R, Ou F
Medicinal Plants
The astragalus plant, a common perennial in medicinal herb gardens, is showing that what happens in the gut can shape recovery from a major brain injury, which is a good reason to look twice at the roots you're growing beyond their pretty yellow flowers.
Scientists gave mice a sugar-based compound from the astragalus root, a plant used for centuries in traditional Chinese medicine, before and after inducing a stroke. The compound helped seal up a leaky gut, encouraged the growth of helpful bacteria that produce beneficial fatty acids, and calmed inflammation signals traveling from gut to brain. When researchers transplanted gut bacteria from human stroke patients into mice, the same protective effect showed up, suggesting the gut microbes themselves are part of the story, not just the plant compound.
Key Findings
Astragalus polysaccharide (ASP) reduced brain injury and intestinal barrier damage in a mouse stroke model (MCAO)
ASP works partly by blocking the LPS-TLR4-MAPK inflammatory pathway and boosting beneficial gut bacteria (g_Anaerobutyricum, g_Caproiciproducens) that produce short-chain fatty acids
Antibiotic and fecal transplant experiments confirmed the brain-protective effect depends on gut microbiota, and LPS levels were elevated in human stroke patients
chevron_right Technical Summary
A compound from the astragalus root, a plant long used in traditional medicine, helped protect the brain after stroke in mice by repairing the gut lining and shifting gut bacteria toward beneficial, anti-inflammatory species.
Abstract Preview
Original paper
Astragalus polysaccharide ameliorates ischemic stroke via modulating the microbiota-gut-brain axis.
Ischemic stroke (IS) remains a major contributor to global disability and mortality. Astragalus polysaccharide (ASP), a naturally active component derived from Astragalus membranaceus, exhibits the...
open_in_new Read full abstractAbstract copyright held by the original publisher.
Species Mentioned
Was this useful?
Want to tell us more? (optional)
Thanks for the note!
Something went wrong — please try again.
Too many submissions. Try again in an hour.
Ancient Amazonian forests were planted and tended by Indigenous farmers
Forests and fruits we romanticize as wild — including many plants now in our kitchens and gardens — may exist in their current abundance precisely because an...
Astragalus is a large genus of over 3,000 species of herbs and small shrubs, belonging to the legume family Fabaceae and the subfamily Faboideae. It is the largest genus of plants in terms of described species. The genus is native to temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. Common names incl...