Artichoke In the Promotion of Digestive Health

By Kyle J. Norton

On seeking natural therapy with no side effects, scientists may have a herbal remedy for improvement of digestive health, according to studies.

The digestive system is an organ consists of the gastrointestinal tract and other organs associated with digestive functioning including the salivary glands, pancreas, liver, and gallbladder.

Digestion is a process of breaking down foods into a smaller and smaller portion that can be absorbed and assimilated into the body.

Digestive disorders can be caused by the digestive problem or some underlying diseases, including GERD, IBS,...

Most common symptoms of digestive disorders include bloating, constipation, diarrhea, heartburn. fecal incontinence.and pain in the belly.

Although there are many risk factors associated with the onset of digestive problems, some researchers suggested that the promotion of the Western diet may have a strong implication in the induction of digestive disorders.

Dr. Marit K. Zinöcker, the lead scientist in the investigation of the Western diet and Microbiome wrote, "the Western diet promotes inflammation that arises from both structural and behavioral changes in the resident microbiome".

And, " The environment created in the gut by ultra-processed foods, a hallmark of the Western diet, is an evolutionarily unique selection ground for microbes that can promote diverse forms of inflammatory disease".

The findings clearly explained the negative impact of the Western diet in the alternation of the ratio of gut microbes, leading to digestive disorders in the initiation of chronic diseases.

Artichoke is a perennial thistle of Cynara cardunculus species of the Cynara genus, belonging to the family Carduoideae native to Southern Europe around the Mediterranean.

The herbal plant has been used in traditional medicine as liver protective and detoxified agent, and to treat digestive disorders, abdominal pain gas and bloating, etc.

Scientists on finding a natural remedy for the improvement of digestive function examined whether the consumption of artichokes enriched with a probiotic Lactobacillus paracasei strain affects fecal microbiota composition and other symptoms associated with chronic constipation.

The study included 8 volunteers (3M/5F age 40+/-14 y) integrated their normal diet with artichokes (180 gr) enriched with 20 billions of L. paracasei LMGP22043.

According to tested assays, additional artichoke diet exerted a strong effect in promotion of the colonized by the probiotic strain in all volunteers' gut, after 15 days of feeding.

Injection of artichoke also demonstrated a significant increase of butyric and valeric acids with a decrease of lactic acid, the indications of improvement of gut microbiota.

The diet integrated with artichoke also resolved the constipation symptoms by reducing the fecal beta-glucuronidase activity.

Interestingly, according to the analysis of symptom profile, there was a marked reduction in abdominal distension and feeling of incomplete evacuation in volunteers with constipation problems.

The results suggested that included artichoke in a diet promotes a healthy digestive system by balancing the ratio of gut microbiota.

In order to reveal more information about artichoke enhanced the function of the gastrointestinal tract, researchers investigated the effects of Jerusalem artichoke inulin (JA) or chicory inulin (CH) in snack bars on composition fecal microbiota, the concentration of fecal SCFA, bowel habit and gastrointestinal symptoms.

45 volunteers were selected to a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled, parallel-group study.

After a 7 days run-in period, subjects were randomly assigned to three groups of fifteen subjects each, consuming either snack bars with CH or JA, or snack bars without fructans (placebo); for 7 d (adaptation period), they ingested one snack bar per day (7.7 g fructan/d) and continued for 14 d with two snack bars per day.

At the end of the intervention, consumption of CH or JA improved the ratio of gut microbiota by increasing the counts of good bacterias such as bifidobacteria (+1.2 log10 in 21 d) and decreasing the counts of bad bacteria such as Bacteroides/Prevotella and Clostridium histolyticum/C. lituseburense group in frequency.

Consumption of CH or JA also resulted in mild and moderate flatulence in a few subjects compared to placebo with a slight effected of tool consistency.

Dr. Kleessen B, the lead scientist said, "...adaptation on increased doses of CH or JA in bakery products stimulates the growth of bifidobacteria and may contribute to the suppression of potentially pathogenic bacteria".

Taken altogether, artichoke alone and combined with other herbal remedies may be considered functional remedies for the treatment of the digestive disorder, pending to the confirmation of larger sample size and multicenter human study.


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Author Biography
Kyle J. Norton (Scholar, Master of Nutrition, All right reserved)
Health article writer and researcher; Over 10.000 articles and research papers have been written and published online, including worldwide health, ezine articles, article base, health blogs, self-growth, best before it's news, the karate GB daily, etc.,.
Named TOP 50 MEDICAL ESSAYS FOR ARTISTS & AUTHORS TO READ by Disilgold.com Named 50 of the best health Tweeters Canada - Huffington Post
Nominated for shorty award over last 4 years
Some articles have been used as references in medical research, such as international journal Pharma and Bioscience, ISSN 0975-6299.

References
(1) Effects of probiotic Lactobacillus paracasei-enriched artichokes on constipated patients: a pilot study by Valerio F1, Russo F, de Candia S, Riezzo G, Orlando A, Lonigro SL, Lavermicocca P. (PubMed)
(2) Jerusalem artichoke and chicory inulin in bakery products affect faecal microbiota of healthy volunteers by Kleessen B1, Schwarz S, Boehm A, Fuhrmann H, Richter A, Henle T, Krueger M.(PubMed)
(3) The Western Diet-Microbiome-Host Interaction and Its Role in Metabolic Disease by Zinöcker MK1, Lindseth IA. (PubMed)