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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Nutr.
Sec. Nutrition and Microbes
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fnut.2025.1573516
Aqueous extract of Solanum americanum Mill. relieves functional constipation by modulating the enteric nervous system and gut micro-ecosystems
Provisionally accepted- Yunnan Agricultural University, Kunming, China
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Solanum americanum Mill. (SA) is a food and medicine homology resource of the Li nationality. In Yunnan folk, people often eat SA "for gut".However, no studies have been reported on its treatment in constipation. The present study evaluated the laxative activity of SAAE using loperamide-induced functional constipation (FC) mouse model. The results demonstrated that SAAE is abundant in nucleotides and polysaccharides. The gavage of 300, 600, and 900 mg/kg•bw of SAAE was efficacious in enhancing defecation behaviour and the gastrointestinal transit rate of FC mice. Among these doses, 600mg/kg•bw of SAAE exhibited the best laxative effect. Furthermore, SAAE exerted a significant effect on the colon transcriptome profiles of FC mice, most notably on the neuroactive ligand-receptor interaction and the TNFR1 signaling pathway. Among neuroactive ligand-receptor interaction pathway, SAAE significantly affected the levels of 5-hydroxytryptamine, neuropeptide Y, and epinephrine in the serum and colon of FC mice. In addition, SAAE significantly up-regulated the expression of Bcl-XL, an anti-apoptotic protein in the colon. Intriguingly, SAAE also significantly increased the expression of the neuronal markers HuC/D in the colon. This finding suggests that SAAE may alleviate FC by modulating the enteric nervous system. Notably, SAAE alleviated loperamide-induced gut inflammation, damaged gut barrier, and gut microbiota disruption. A significant increase in the relative abundance of Actinobacteriota, Christensenellaceae, Eggerthellaceae,Eubacterium_brachy_group were observed in the gut of FC mice treated with SAAE.These microbial taxa are closely associated with phenotypic indicators of FC, and it is hypothesised that they may be key taxa in SAAE regulation of the gut micro-ecosystems and enteric nervous system to alleviate FC. These findings may contribute to the enhancement of the value and the efficient utilization of SA resources, laying a theoretical foundation for the development of laxative-related products.
Keywords: RNA-Seq, Gut Microbiota, Neuroactive ligand-receptor interaction, TNFR1, Actinobacteriota, Christensenellaceae, Eggerthellaceae,
Received: 11 Feb 2025; Accepted: 10 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Gao, Li, Hu, Yang, Peng, Sheng, Tian, Yao and Zhao. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Xiaoyu Gao, Yunnan Agricultural University, Kunming, China
Yan Zhao, Yunnan Agricultural University, Kunming, China
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.