ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Pharmacol.
Sec. Ethnopharmacology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fphar.2025.1545619
Cold-and Hot-Classified Botanical Drugs Differentially Modulate Gut Microbiota: Linking TCM Emic Classification to Microbial Ecology
Provisionally accepted
- Dalian Medical University, Dalian, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Introduction: Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) classifies botanical drugs based on their thermal properties (an emic classification system), categorizing them as "cold" (e.g., "clearing heat" for anti-inflammatory effects) or "hot" (e.g., "warming the middle" for metabolic enhancement). However, the specific roles of these botanical drugs in restoring gut microbiota dysbiosis remain unclear. This study aimed to explore whether TCM-classified cold and hot botanical drugs differentially restore gut microbiota dysbiosis and host physiology in antibiotic-treated mice.: Mice with antibiotic-induced dysbiosis were treated with eight TCM-classified botanical drugs (four cold: Rheum palmatum L., Scutellaria baicalensis Georgi, Senna alexandrina Mill., Coptis chinensis Franch.; four hot: Codonopsis pilosula (Franch.) Nannf., Astragalus membranaceus (Fisch.) Bunge, Angelica sinensis (Oliv.) Diels, Panax ginseng C.A.Mey.) for 20 days. Gut microbiota were analyzed via 16S rRNA sequencing on days 5, 10, 15, and 20, alongside physiological parameters including blood glucose, serum lipids, TNF-α, adiponectin, and intestinal histomorphology. Results: By day 20, all botanical drugs restored the diversity and ranking of dominant genera (those with >10% abundance, such as Lactobacillus and unclassified Muribaculaceae). However, cold-classified drugs, traditionally associated with anti-inflammatory effects, selectively enriched anti-inflammatory taxa, including Akkermansia and Bifidobacterium. In contrast, hot-classified drugs, linked to metabolic enhancement, promoted metabolic-modulating genera such as Clostridia and Eubacterium coprostanoligenes. These differential enrichments corresponded with the therapeutic principles defined by TCM: cold-classified drugs reduced serum TNF-α levels (P < 0.01), demonstrating anti-inflammatory effects, whereas hot-classified drugs improved lipid profiles (TG: P < 0.001), thereby promoting metabolic modulation. Discussion: TCM-classified cold and hot botanical drugs universally stabilize dominant microbiota while differentially modulating low-abundance taxa. The enrichment of Akkermansia (cold) and Clostridia (hot) offers a microbiota-driven validation of TCM's empirical classification framework. These findings connect traditional knowledge with microbial ecology, underscoring the potential of TCM-guided microbiota modulation for precision therapies.
Keywords: Gut microbiota dysbiosis, Traditional Chinese Medicine, Akkermansia, Clostridia, Emic classification, TCM property
Received: 15 Dec 2024; Accepted: 30 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Yang, Shao, Liu, Zhang, Liu, Xiao and Tang. 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:
Jing Xiao, Dalian Medical University, Dalian, China
Li Tang, Dalian Medical University, Dalian, 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.