Gut Flora: Novel Therapeutic Target of Chinese Medicine for the Treatment of Cardiovascular Diseases

Table 1

Summary of the efficiency of Chinese medicine.

Diseases	Type 2 diabetes and obesity	Obesity	Type 2 diabetes	CVD
Herbs/decoction	Berberine [8, 9, 42]	Ganoderma lucidum [43]	Gegen Qinlian decoction [10]	Ginsenosides [44–46]
Source/component	Rhizoma coptidis plants	Ganoderma lucidum	Gegen (Radix Puerariae), Huang Qin (Radix Scutellariae), Huang Lian (Rhizoma coptidis), Gancao (Honey-fried Licorice Root)	Ginseng
Species	Humans; rat	Mouse	Human	Cell; rat
Alteration of intestinal flora	SCFA-producing bacteria ↑ (Allobaculum, Bacteroides, Blautia, Butyricicoccus, and Phascolarctobacterium)	The ratio of Firmicutes to Bacteroidetes ↓; the number of Escherichia coli ↓; levels of several beneficial bacteria ↑(Clostridium, Eubacterium)	Level of Faecalibacterium prausnitzii↑	None
Therapeutical effect	Fasting and postprandial blood sugar ↓; insulin resistance ↓; inflammation ↓	Chronic inflammation ↓; insulin resistance ↓; metabolic endotoxemia ↓; maintain the integrity of the intestinal barrier	Levels of FBG and HbA1c ↓; levels of HOMA-β ↑	Expression of eNOS and vascular endothelial growth factor ↓; tissue regeneration ↑; expansion of infarction area ↓

eNOS, endothelial nitric oxide synthase; FBG, fasting blood glucose; HbA1c, glycated hemoglobin; HOMA-β, homeostasis model assessment β; SCFA, short-chain fatty acid.↑: increase or promote; ↓: reduce or alleviate.