Enocyanin alleviates experimental colitis and restores gut microbiota homeostasis as functional foods

Enocyanin is an anthocyanin-rich extract that comes from grape peels and is increasingly considered a promising additive in the food industry. To date its functionality as a potential ingredient to mitigate gut dysbiosis, the current study focused on unveiling its impact on modulating experimental colitis and microbiome homeostasis. The results revealed that enocyanin ameliorated inflammation by inhibiting the activation of the NF-kB pathway and the expression of pro-inflammatory factors (IL-1 beta, IL-6, iNOS, and COX-2). Further analysis demonstrated that enocyanin alleviates weight loss, colon shortening, and the loss of colonic tight junction proteins (occludin, ZO-1) in DSS-induced colitis mice. Of note, enocyanin significantly alleviated DSS-induced intestinal microbiota disorder and profoundly decreased the abundance of putative pathogenic bacterial species such as Enterobacteriaceae, Deferribacteraceae, and Streptococcaceae. In summary, this study highlighted the potential of enocyanin to ameliorate experimental colitis and gut microbiota dysbiosis, shedding light on its further application as a functional food or additive.