Kudzu root fights blood fat buildup via gut bacteria shifts
Yin D, Chen M, Chen X, Feng Y, Zhou X
Medicinal Plants
The kudzu vine sprawling over fences and roadsides across the American South has a root long used in Chinese kitchens and medicine cabinets that may help tame the blood fat problems linked to rich diets.
Researchers fed rats a high-fat diet and then gave them Pueraria thomsonii, better known as kudzu root, a starchy root that's been eaten and used medicinally in China for centuries. The root improved cholesterol and liver health, and detailed chemical mapping showed it worked partly by changing which gut bacteria thrive and by nudging the body's fat-processing chemistry back toward normal. The team even confirmed some of these same metabolic shifts in human patients, suggesting the root's effects aren't just a rat-study fluke.
Key Findings
Kudzu root (PTR) improved serum lipid profiles, lowered ALT/AST liver enzyme levels, and reduced hepatic steatosis and inflammation in high-fat-diet rats
Metabolomic analysis across both rats and human patients showed restored arachidonic acid and unsaturated fatty acid metabolism as the key affected pathway
Gut microbiota remodeling correlated with arachidonic acid-related lipid metabolism, and liver gene expression changes pointed to possible involvement of the AMPK signaling pathway
chevron_right Technical Summary
Kudzu root, a traditional Chinese food-medicine herb, appears to fight high-fat-diet-related dyslipidemia by reshaping gut bacteria and rebalancing fat metabolism, with liver studies pointing to a possible role for the AMPK energy-sensing pathway.
Abstract Preview
Original paper
Integrative multi-omics reveals that Pueraria thomsonii Radix alleviates dyslipidemia by remodeling gut microbiota and regulating arachidonic acid metabolism.
Pueraria thomsonii Radix (PTR, "Fen-ge") is a food-medicine herb widely used in China for metabolic complaints. Its putative lipid-modulating effects are supported by traditional practice, but the ...
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Kudzu, also called Japanese arrowroot or Chinese arrowroot, is a group of climbing, coiling, and trailing deciduous perennial vines native to much of East Asia, Southeast Asia, and some Pacific islands. It is invasive in many parts of the world, primarily North America.