Linwu Ran

Lycium barbarum L. (abbreviated to L. barbarum), a traditional dual-use plant as food and medicine, contains polysaccharides from Lycium barbarum L. (LBPs) as its key bioactive component. This study aimed to examine the phenotypic characteristics, polysaccharide content, and their correlation with activity across various commercial grades of L. barbarum. Five commercial grades of L. barbarum were selected for analysis to determine their phenotypic characteristics and polysaccharide content. High-performance liquid chromatogram-diode array detection (HPLC-DAD) and ¹H NMR were employed to analyze the monosaccharide composition of LBPs, of which their hypoglycemic activity was further valuated. Results revealed significant differences in fruit weight and diameter among different grades (p < 0.05), while floating rate and bulk density remained unaffected by grades. Variations were observed in the chromaticity coordinates, with the c values showing notable differences (p < 0.01). Polysaccharide content tended to increase with higher grades and smaller fruit sizes, ranging from 1.94% to 5.69%. The polysaccharides in different contained monosaccharides of Man, Rha, Ara, Gal, Glc, GalA, GlcA and Xyl, with Ara and Gal being predominant. Identified through ¹H NMR spectra, the peak intensity of Ara increased from lower to higher grades, and the arrangement of the chemical shifts reflected distinct commercial grade characteristics. The inhibitory concentration (IC₅₀) against α-amylase and α-glucosidase ranged from 0.418 to 1.345 mg/mL, and 0.474 to 1.052 mg/mL, respectively, indicating good hypoglycemic activity within this range. The main monosaccharide groups Ara, Gal, and GalA were identified as key contributors to enzyme inhibition. Collectively interpreting the phenotypic features, polysaccharide content, monosaccharide composition, NMR data and activity profiles, Ara, Gal and GalA emerge as signature monosaccharide components of LBPs. These results provide novel theoretical insights for L. barbarum quality assessment.

Objectives: Female obesity may be improved by the consumption of a high-polyphenolic-rich diet. Lycium ruthenicum Murray is a renowned edible plant, the fruit of which is abundant in anthocyanins and exhibits many biological activities. This study aimed to investigate the potential impact of anthocyanins derived from Lycium ruthenicum Murray (ACN) intervention on improving obesity by regulating the gut microbiota and bile acids (BAs) metabolism in high-fat diet (HFD)-induced female mice. Methods: A total of 32 C57BL/6J female mice were divided into four distinct groups: the Ctrl group (fed a normal diet), Ctrl + ACN group (fed a normal diet plus 8 mg/mL extract of ACN), HFD group (fed a high-fat diet), and HFD + ACN group (fed a HFD plus 8 mg/mL extract of ACN). Results: The findings showed that ACN significantly reduced the body weight, periovarian adipose mass, and adipocyte diameter, ameliorated lipid accumulation in the liver, and lowered the serum total cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein (LDL-C) levels in HFD-induced female mice. In addition, ACN exhibited a reversal of gut microbial dysbiosis in HFD-fed female mice, such as by enhancing the quantity of Lactobacillus and Allobaculum and reducing the abundance of Blautia and Faecalibaculum. Moreover, the results of fecal BAs showed that ACN led to a decrease in the ratio of primary to secondary BAs, mainly attributed to decreased levels of primary BAs, including CA, CDCA, αMCA, and HCA in HFD-induced female mice. Further analysis revealed that ACN may exert its anti-obesity effect by increasing the relative abundance of Lactobacillus_ jonsonii and Lactobacillus_reuteri within the gut and subsequently affecting the metabolism of fecal HDCA and GUDCA. Conclusion: These results indicated that ACN effectively inhibits HFD-induced obesity in female mice by regulating gut microbiota-related BA metabolism.

Previous findings showed that anthocyanins from Lycium ruthenicum Murray (ACN) reduced HFD‐induced hypercholesterolemia by regulating gut microbiota, but the mechanism has not been fully understood. The objective of this research was to know whether the cholesterol‐lowering impact of ACN in HFD‐induced ApoE^−/− mice is related to the gut microbiota‐bile acid (BA) metabolism. Twenty‐four male ApoE^−/− mice were divided into three groups: the Control group, the HFD group, and the HFD + ACN group. Here, we showed that ACN intervention reduced HFD‐induced body weight serum concentrations of TC and LDL‐C and ameliorated lipid accumulation in the liver and adipose tissues. Besides, ACN altered gut microbiota composition in HFD‐fed ApoE^−/− mice. Moreover, UHPLC–MS/MS analysis revealed that ACN intervention significantly increased the ratio of conjugated to unconjugated BAs in feces induced by HFD, attributed to the increase in conjugated BAs and decrease in unconjugated BAs. Finally, the correlation analysis indicated that the above changes in fecal BA profile were linked with an increase in Bifidobacterium, Allobaculum and a decrease in Ileibacterium, Helicobacter, Rikenellaceae_RC9_gut_group, Blautia, Odoribacter, and Colidextribacter. In summary, ACN could alleviate HFD‐induced hypercholesterolemia in ApoE^−/− mice, which was associated with the improvement of gut microbiota and modulation of fecal BA profile.

A purified fraction of polysaccharides obtained from the fruits of Lycium barbarum L. shaped the gut community profile and improved glucose homeostasis as well as intestinal barrier function in high-fat diet-induced diabetic mice.

This study is aimed to determine the effects of flavonoids fromLycium barbarum(LBFs) on the high-fat diet (HFD)/streptozotocin (STZ)-induced type 2 diabetes in mice.

Lyciumruthenicum Murray (L. ruthenicum) has been used both as traditional Chinese medicine and food. Recent studies indicated that anthocyanins are the most abundant bioactive compounds in the L. ruthenicum fruits. The purpose of this study was to investigate the preventive effects and the mechanism of the anthocycanins from the fruit of L. ruthenicum (ACN) in high-fat diet-induced obese mice. In total, 24 male C57BL/6J mice were divided into three groups: control group (fed a normal diet), high-fat diet group (fed a high-fat diet, HFD), and HFD +ACN group (fed a high-fat diet and drinking distilled water that contained 0.8% crude extract of ACN). The results showed that ACN could significantly reduce the body weight, inhibit lipid accumulation in liver and white adipose tissue, and lower the serum total cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels compared to that of mice fed a high-fat diet. 16S rRNA gene sequencing of bacterial DNA demonstrated that ACN prevent obesity by enhancing the diversity of cecal bacterial communities, lowering the Firmicutes-to-Bacteroidota ratio, increasing the genera Akkermansia, and decreasing the genera Faecalibaculum. We also studied the inhibitory effect of ACN on pancreatic lipase. The results showed that ACN has a high affinity for pancreatic lipase and inhibits the activity of pancreatic lipase, with IC50 values of 1.80 (main compound anthocyanin) and 3.03 mg/mL (crude extract), in a competitive way. Furthermore, fluorescence spectroscopy studies showed that ACN can quench the intrinsic fluorescence of pancreatic lipase via a static mechanism. Taken together, these findings suggest that the anthocyanins from L. ruthenicum fruits could have preventive effects in high-fat-diet induced obese mice by regulating the intestinal microbiota and inhibiting the pancreatic lipase activity.

Anthocyanins have been reported to have effective chemopreventive activity. Lycium ruthenicum Murray is rich in anthocyanins and exhibits many biological activities. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects and possible biological mechanism of the main anthocyanin monomer (Pt3G) of Lycium ruthenicum Murray on prostate cancer DU-145 cells. The cell proliferation was detected by methyl thiazolyl tetrazolium assay. The cell apoptosis rates were assessed by flow cytometric analysis and TUNEL assay. The expressions of apoptosis related proteins were evaluated by western blotting. Our data demonstrated that Pt3G inhibited cell proliferation, induced apoptosis and promoted cell cycle arrest at the S phase in a concentration-dependent manner (0, 100, 200 and 400 μg mL⁻¹). Furthermore, it was shown that Pt3G decreased the mitochondrial membrane permeability through regulating the expressions of Bax and Bcl-2. Western blot analysis indicated that Pt3G significantly increased the expression of PTEN and then activated the PI3K/Akt-mediated caspase 3 pathway. In addition, our results also suggested that Pt3G activated the PTEN gene to induce the apoptosis of DU-145 cells by stimulating the overproduction of ROS. To sum up, these results indicate that Pt3G inhibits cell proliferation and induces apoptosis through the ROS/PTEN/PI3K/Akt/caspase 3 signaling pathway in prostate cancer DU-145 cells. Therefore, Pt3G of Lycium ruthenicum Murray may be a potential anti-proliferative agent for the prevention or treatment of prostate cancer.