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Modulation effect of tea consumption on gut microbiota

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Abstract

Tea is one of the most popular beverages in the world and possesses a wide range of beneficial effects for human health. The modulation of tea on gut microbiota has gained much interest in recent years. The present study discussed the modulation effect of various types of tea on gut microbiota, which plays crucial roles in human health, as investigated by in vitro animal and human studies. The currently available findings from a total of 23 studies support the modulation effects of tea liquid, tea extract, and its major active components, including polyphenols, polysaccharides, and teasaponin, on gut microbiota. Overall, tea possesses prebiotic-like effect and can alleviate the gut microbiota dysbiosis induced by high-fat diet in gut microbiota, despite the detailed bacterial taxa may alter depending on the types of tea supplemented. Current evidence implies that the modulation effect on gut microbiota may be an important action mechanism underlying the beneficial effect of tea consumption in daily life and also the great potential of strategically chosen tea extract to develop functional foods.

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Funding

This work was supported by the Shandong Provincial Natural Science Foundation (Grant No. ZR2018MH010) and University Youth Innovation Team of Shandong Province (Grant No. 2019KJK017).

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LS conceived and directed the study and revised the manuscript. YCL and XYL collected and analyzed the data, and drafted the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Liang Shen.

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Liu, YC., Li, XY. & Shen, L. Modulation effect of tea consumption on gut microbiota. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 104, 981–987 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-019-10306-2

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