Impact of Gallic Acid on Gut Health: Focus on the Gut Microbiome, Immune Response, and Mechanisms of Action

Abstract

Gallic acid (GA) is a naturally occurring polyphenol compound present in fruits, vegetables, and herbal medicines. According to previous studies, GA has many biological properties, including antioxidant, anticancer, anti-inflammatory, and antimicrobial properties. GA and its derivatives have multiple industrial uses, such as food supplements or additives. Additionally, recent studies have shown that GA and its derivatives not only enhance gut microbiome (GM) activities, but also modulate immune responses. Thus, GA has great potential to facilitate natural defense against microbial infections and modulate the immune response. However, the exact mechanisms of GA acts on the GM and immune system remain unclear. In this review, first the physicochemical properties, bioavailability, absorption, and metabolism of GA are introduced, and then we summarize recent findings concerning its roles in gastrointestinal health. Furthermore, the present review attempts to explain how GA influences the GM and modulates the immune response to maintain intestinal health.

Pork Liver Pâté Enriched with Persimmon Coproducts: Effect of In Vitro Gastrointestinal Digestion on Its Fatty Acid and Polyphenol Profile Stability

“…Furthermore, gallic acid increased beneficial bacteria and decreased pathogenic bacteria. Yang et al [ 77 ], in a review about the impact of gallic acid in gut health, reveled the potential of this acid and its derivatives for the treatment and prevention of gastrointestinal diseases through interaction with the gut microbiome and modulation of the immune response. The modulation of gut microbiota and the immunology response also have been shown in an animal study where female mice with induced chronic inflammation were fed meat product with an added antioxidant extract [ 18 ].…”

Development of a High-Throughput Method to Study the Inhibitory Effect of Phytochemicals on Trimethylamine Formation

“…Put simply, in our experiment, bacteria could be using gallic acid and chlorogenic acid as a more preferent source of energy than choline, thus leading to a reduction in choline use and TMA production. Indeed, both gallic acid and chlorogenic acid can be metabolized by the gut microbiota [35,36]. For example, chlorogenic acid can be rapidly metabolized (7 h) in human fecal fermentation into 3-(3,4-dihydroxyphenyl)propionic acid [35], which opens the door to new mechanistic questions such as what is the bioactive compound, chlorogenic acid or one of its microbial metabolites.…”

A Dietary Cholesterol-Based Intestinal Inflammation Assay for Improving Drug-Discovery on Inflammatory Bowel Diseases

“…The anti-inflammatory activity of food compounds has been already assayed in this model to evaluate their protective immunomodulatory functions ( Arteaga et al, 2018 ). For the proof-of-concept of the platform, we here use two dietary phenolic acids, namely gallic acid (GA) and ferulic acid (FA), with well-described anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties in murine models of IBD ( Sadar et al, 2007 ; Pandurangan et al, 2015 ; Kandhare et al, 2016 ; Zhu et al, 2019 ; Yang et al, 2020 ). Indeed, we verified that both compounds reduced the inflammation index NII in animals after the induction of inflammation with HCD ( Figures 4D,E ).…”

“…Preclinical proof-of-concept of the platform is exemplified by testing the effects of gallic acid (GA) and ferulic acid (FA) on HCD-driven intestinal inflammation phenotype. GA and FA are active compounds found in many fruits and plants and exhibit anti-inflammatory protective effects in mouse models of IBD (Sadar et al, 2007;Pandurangan et al, 2015;Kandhare et al, 2016;Hossen et al, 2019;Zhu et al, 2019;Yang et al, 2020). After a first pass screening strategy, GA and FA are validated in dose-response experiments to find their IC50 and the lowest concentrations at which they are active.…”