Open AccessGreen tea extract and black tea extract differentially influence cecal levels of short‐chain fatty acids in rats
Author(s) -
Unno Tomonori,
Osakabe Naomi
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
food science and nutrition
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.614
H-Index - 27
ISSN - 2048-7177
DOI - 10.1002/fsn3.607
Subject(s) - cecum , green tea extract , food science , butyrate , feces , short chain fatty acid , biology , resistant starch , green tea , starch , chemistry , microbiology and biotechnology , fermentation , ecology
Increasing evidence indicates that gut microbiota plays a critical role to maintain the host's health. The biological function of microbially produced short‐chain fatty acids ( SCFA ) becomes the focus of attention. This study aimed to compare the effects of green tea extract ( GTE ) and black tea extract ( BTE ) on cecal levels of SCFA in rats. Rats consumed an assigned diet of either a control diet, a GTE diet (10 g/kg), or a BTE diet (10 g/kg), for 3 weeks. The dietary addition of GTE significantly reduced the concentrations of acetate and butyrate in cecal digesta compared to the control, but BTE showed an increased trend for a cecal pool. In the GTE group, a significant amount of undigested starch was excreted in feces, but BTE produced no effect. Interestingly, feces of rats fed the BTE diet contained higher bacterial 16S rRNA gene copy numbers for total eubacteria compared to the control diet. Taken together, treatments of the diets with GTE and BTE brought about a different degree of producing SCFA in rat cecum. BTE might advantageously stimulate more SCFA production than GTE by facilitating bacterial utilization of starch.