Red ginseng fuels a gut bacterium that curbs appetite
Zhuang T, Wang X, Zheng W, Lu W, Hao L
Medicinal Plants
The ginseng root you might grow in a shaded woodland bed or see dried at an herbal market turns out to work through your gut bacteria, not just through the plant chemicals themselves.
Researchers gave obese mice red ginseng and found it boosted a helpful gut bacterium called Akkermansia muciniphila. That bacterium makes a protein which signals the brain to suppress hunger, and mice getting this treatment ate less and lost weight. It's a reminder that some plant remedies work indirectly, by feeding the right microbes in your gut rather than acting on the body directly.
Key Findings
Short-term red ginseng treatment reduced appetite and body weight in high-fat-diet-induced obese mice while raising circulating GDF15 levels
Red ginseng enriched the gut bacterium Akkermansia muciniphila, and depleting this bacterium eliminated the weight-loss and appetite-suppressing effects
The bacterial protein Amuc_1631 triggers colonic GDF15 production via the PERK-eIF2α-ATF4-CHOP pathway, activating the brainstem GDF15-GFRAL axis to suppress food intake
chevron_right Technical Summary
Scientists found that red ginseng fights obesity by feeding a specific gut bacterium, which then produces a protein that tells the brain to stop eating. In mice, this process reduced appetite and body weight without the bacterium itself needing to be given directly.
Abstract Preview
Original paper
Enrichment of Akkermansia muciniphila by red ginseng promotes GDF15 secretion and suppresses obesity in mice.
Obesity is a growing global health burden with rising incidence. Red ginseng (RGS), a traditional processed ginseng product, shows potential for improving metabolic parameters, though its anti-obes...
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.
Nanoplastics interfere with plant-mycorrhizal communication and limit plant growth.
Microplastics breaking down in your garden soil are quietly strangling the beneficial fungi that help your vegetables absorb phosphorus and other nutrients, ...
Cyclocodon lancifolius is a plant species in the family Campanulaceae. It is from southern and eastern Asia, and is known as 轮钟花 in Chinese.