ReviewFrontiers in microbiology2026
Herbal medicines modulate gut microbiota in metabolic diseases: a review.
Review in Frontiers in microbiology, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Background: Metabolic diseases-including obesity, type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD)-affect over 1 billion individuals globally and are characterized by insulin resistance, chronic inflammation, and gut microbiota dysbiosis. Herbal medicines offer multi-component therapeutic potential through microbiota modulation, but mechanistic insights remain fragmented. Objective: This review synthesizes recent advances in herbal medicine-mediated gut microbiota regulation in metabolic diseases and delineates underlying molecular mechanisms. Methods: A comprehensive literature search was conducted across PubMed and Web of Science. Search strategies employed MeSH terms and free-text keywords encompassing herbal medicines, gut microbiota, and metabolic diseases. Two authors performed study selection and data extraction. Evidence synthesis was structured according to intervention type and metabolic disease category. Results: Herbal polysaccharides and other compounds consistently increased beneficial bacteria and promoted short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) production, improving intestinal barrier integrity via ZO-1/Occludin upregulation and attenuating TLR4/NF-κB-mediated inflammation. Herbal formulations exerted synergistic effects by remodeling microbial community structure, correcting SCFA/bile acid imbalances, and activating IRS1/PI3K/AKT insulin signaling. Notably, Conclusion: Herbal medicines ameliorate metabolic diseases through multi-target gut microbiota modulation, involving SCFA production, bile acid metabolism, and inflammatory pathway attenuation. These mechanistic insights support the development of microbiota-targeted herbal therapeutics, though clinical translation necessitates standardized formulations and rigorous human trials.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What Socratic holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.