This root extract patched up leaky, inflamed mouse intestines
Wang S, Chen X, Wu Z, Zhao Q, Teng Y
Medicinal Plants
The gnarly, sweet-tasting root sold in Asian herb shops as 'dang shen' and sometimes grown as a climbing vine in home gardens has been used for centuries as a gentler ginseng substitute, and this study starts to explain why traditional healers reached for it to settle upset stomachs.
Researchers gave mice a gut-irritating substance to trigger diarrhea, then treated them with a water-based extract from Codonopsis pilosula, a root long used in Chinese herbal medicine. The extract restored the intestine's protective barrier, boosted mucus production, calmed overactive immune cells, and shifted gut bacteria and a related chemical signaling pathway back toward normal. It worked like a multi-layered repair crew for the gut lining rather than a single targeted drug.
Key Findings
CPWE restored body weight, fecal water content, and small intestinal propulsion rate in mice with rhubarb-induced diarrhea
The extract increased tight-junction proteins ZO-1 and occludin and boosted mucin 2 (MUC2) secretion while reducing Th1 and Th17 immune cell proportions in the colon
Effects were linked to changes in gut microbial composition and tryptophan metabolism-AhR signaling, suggesting repair across mechanical, chemical, immune, and biological intestinal barriers
chevron_right Technical Summary
Scientists found that an extract from the root of Codonopsis pilosula, a traditional Chinese medicinal herb, repaired gut damage in mice with drug-induced diarrhea by rebuilding the intestine's protective lining and calming inflammatory immune cells.
Abstract Preview
Original paper
Exploring the multi-barrier repair effects of Codonopsis pilosula water extract in improving rhubarb-induced intestinal dysfunction in mice based on the tryptophan metabolism-AhR pathway.
The intestine is the core digestive and absorptive organ and the largest immune barrier. Intestinal dysfunction impairs physiological function, but current treatments remain suboptimal because of i...
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