An overview on the interplay between nutraceuticals and gut microbiota

BACKGROUND: Nowadays, growing attention was being given to the alternative ways to prevent or treat diseases. Nutraceuticals are used increasingly for this purpose. Many of these are being used as alternative therapy. Classic therapy with synthetic drugs, although very effective, has many side effects. The term “nutraceuticals” refers to the link between the nutritional and pharmaceutical domains. Also, lately, many studies have been done to investigate the role of microbiota in maintaining health. There is the hypothesis that some of the health benefits of nutraceuticals are due to their ability to change the microbiota. The aim of this review was to emphasize the link between the most commonly used nutraceuticals, the microbiota and the health benefits. METHODS: We selected the articles in PubMed, published up to July 2017, that provided information about most used nutraceuticals, microbiota and health benefits. In this review, we incorporate evidence from various types of studies, including observational, in vitro and in vivo, clinical studies or animal experiments. RESULTS: The results demonstrate that many nutraceuticals change the composition of microbiota and can interfere with health status of the patients. DISCUSSION: There is evidence which sustains the importance of nutraceuticals in people’s health through microbiota but further studies are needed to complete the assessment of nutraceuticals in health benefit as a consequence of microbiota’s changing.