Effect of Indra-4 herbal medicine on gut microbiota of rats with acute intestinal inflammation

Abstract

Background: In recent years, the gut microbiota has become an important topic that has attracted the attention of scientists in the field of medicine. The gut microbiome undergoes a dramatic taxonomic change upon diarrhea’s onset, favoring the proliferation of fast-growing facultative anaerobes such as Proteobacteria (mostly Enterobacteriaceae/E. coli) and Streptococcus are most significantly enriched during this early phase leading to dysbiosis. In this study, we aimed to determine the effects of Indra-4 herbal medicine on the gut microbiota by creating a model of acute intestinal inflammation with castor oil in experimental animals. Aim: Our purpose of this study was to determine the effect of Indra-4 herbal medicine on the gut microbiota in a Castor oil induced acute intestinal inflammatory disease model in experimental animals. Materials and Methods: We used method of Hamidu Usman et al. and selected 20 Wistar rats weighing 180-220 grams and randomly divided them into the following four groups: normal, control, Imopec and Indra-4 experimental group. Rats in the normal and control groups were given 0.9% NaCl solution, while rats in the Imopec group were administered with 2 mg/kg Imopec and rats in the Indra-4 group were administered with 300 mg/kg Indra-4 herbal medicine for 5 days. Then, all experimental animals were fasted for 18 hours prior to the experiment. Subsequently, the animals of each group, except normal group, received 10 mL/kg of Castor oil orally by gavage to induce acute intestinal inflammation. After that, all rats were sedated to sleep by ketamine hydrochloride for the blood drawing from the heart of the rats. Blood samples were used to determine PGE2 and TNF-α levels, where stool samples were used to analyze qualitative and quantitative assessment of gut microbiota. Results: Compared to the control group, PGE2 levels of the Indra-4 experimental group were decreased by 3.9% (Indra-4 73.40±4.06, Control group 76.24±3.60), where PGE2 levels of Imopec group were reduced by 4.6% (Imopec 72.90±6.33, Control group 76.24±3.60). Compared to the control group, the TNF-α levels of the Indra-4 experimental group were decreased by 10.9% (Indra-4 64.31±6.73, Control group 71.30±8.69) and TNF-α levels of Imopec group (Imopec 67.48±8.61, Control group 71.30±8.69) were reduced by 5.7%. Comapred to the control group, number of pathogenic bacteria Enterobacterales in experimental group was decreased by 10.6%, where number of E.Coli was decreased by 12.7%. Conclusions: 1. Indra-4 herbal medicine has an anti-diarrheal effect by reducing the levels of pro-inflammatory cytokine TNF-α and inflammatory mediator prostaglandin E2 in Castor oil induced acute intestinal inflammation. 2. Indra-4 herbal medicine has been found to reduce the number of pathogenic bacteria in the disease model.