Potential Prebiotic Effects of Artemisia capillaris-Derived Transglycosylated Product

Abstract

This study investigated the impact of a transglycosylated product (ACOD) catalyzed by Leuconostoc mesenteroides MKSR dextransucrase using sucrose as a glucosyl donor and both maltose and Artemisia capillaris as acceptors on gut microbiota through fecal fermentation. ACOD promoted the growth of probiotics such as Lactiplantibacillus plantarum, Lacticaseibacillus casei, Lacticaseibacillus rhamnosus GG, and Leuconostoc mesenteroides MKSR, while inhibiting the growth of pathogenic bacteria such as Escherichia coli, E. coli O157:H7, Enterococcus faecalis, Listeria monocytogenes, Staphylococcus aureus, Shigella flexneri, Streptococcus mutans, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Bacillus cereus during independent cultivation. Fecal fermentation for 24 h revealed that ACOD significantly increased the production of short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) compared to the blank and fructoooligosaccharide (FOS) groups. Specifically, ACOD led to a 4.5-fold increase in acetic acid production compared to FOSs and a 3.3-fold increase in propionic acid production. Both the ACOD and FOS groups exhibited higher levels of butyric acid than the blank. Notably, ACOD significantly modulated the composition of the gut microbiota by increasing the relative abundances of Lactobacillus and decreasing Escherichia/Shigella and Salmonella. In contrast, FOSs remarkably promoted the growth of Salmonella. These findings suggest that ACOD is a potential candidate for prebiotics that improve the intestinal environment by being actively used by beneficial bacteria.

Keywords: Lactobacillus; Salmonella; gut microbiota; in vitro fermentation; prebiotic; transglycosylated product.

Figure 1

Differential growth of bacterial strains on ACOD, OD, and AC. (a) Inhibition rate of pathogenic bacteria growth by ACOD, OD, and AC; (b) Fold change of probiotic bacteria growth by ACOD, OD, and AC. ACOD is a transglycosylation product of sucrose and maltose in the presence of Artemisia capillaris catalyzed by Leu. mesenteroides MKSR dextransucrase; OD is a transglycosylation product of sucrose and maltose catalyzed by MKSR dextransucrase; AC is hot water extracted A. capillaris. All values are mean ± standard deviation (n = 3). Different capital letters are significantly different (p < 0.05).

Figure 2

Taxonomic composition of gut microbiota during in vitro fermentation. (a) Stacked bar plot shows the relative abundance at the phylum level; (b) Pie chart shows the average relative abundance at the phylum level. AB~DB, The blank control (no additional carbon source supplement); AP~DP, the positive control (the fructooligosaccharides (FOS) supplement); AS~DS, the experimental group (the Artemisia capillaris-derived transglycosylated product (ACOD) supplement).

Figure 3

The relative abundance of the bacterial community at the genus level. AB~DB, The blank control (no additional carbon source supplement); AP~DP, the positive control (the fructooligosaccharides (FOS) supplement); AS~DS, the experimental group (the Artemisia capillaris-derived transglycosylated product (ACOD) supplement).