ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Nutr.
Sec. Nutrition and Food Science Technology
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fnut.2025.1627476
This article is part of the Research TopicIn Vitro Digestion in the Study of FoodView all articles
The protective effect of Gentiana lutea flower against mycotoxins toxicity in a gastrointestinal barrier in vitro model
Provisionally accepted
Giacomo Di Matteo1
Massimo Frangiamone2
Pilar Vila-Donat3Valter Di Cecco4Luciano Di Martino4
Lara Manyes3*
Luisa Mannina1- 1Sapienza University of Rome, Roma, Italy
- 2University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
- 3University of Valencia, Valencia, Spain
- 4Maiella Seed Bank, Sulmona, Italy
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Objective: Gentiana lutea L. flower, a botanical species traditionally used in European herbal medicine, was investigated for its phytochemical composition, gastrointestinal bioaccessibility, and protective effects against mycotoxin-induced toxicity.Methods: Gentiana lutea flower samples were collected from the Majella National Park and chemically characterized using HPLC-PDA and NMR metabolomics, revealing abundant bioactive compounds (iridoids, secoiridoids, xanthones), and quantifying the levels of amino acids, organic acids, and sugars. Following in vitro gastrointestinal digestion, bioaccessible fractions were analyzed and subjected to transepithelial transport assays using differentiated Caco-2 monolayers.Results: Gene expression analysis and cytotoxicity evaluation on Caco-2 cell cultures demonstrated that digested Gentiana significantly mitigated the toxic effects of aflatoxin B1 (AFB1), ochratoxin A (OTA), and beauvericin (BEA). The digested Gentiana samples reduced the expression of proapoptotic genes (BAX, CASP3), preserved intestinal barrier integrity by modulating tight junctionrelated genes (CL-2, ZO-1), and promoted antioxidant responses through SRXN1 regulation.Conclusion: These findings highlight the potential of Gentiana lutea flower as a functional phytocompound source for intestinal barrier protection against mycotoxins.
Keywords: mycotoxin, Gentiana lutea, qPCR, in vitro digestion, Metabolomics, NMR, HPLC, bioactive compounds Font: Italic Font: Italic Font: Italic Formatted: Font: Italic Formatted: Font: Italic Font: Italic Formatted: Font: Italic Justified
Received: 12 May 2025; Accepted: 25 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Di Matteo, Frangiamone, Vila-Donat, Cecco, Martino, Manyes and Mannina. 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: Lara Manyes, University of Valencia, Valencia, Spain
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