Metabolism of Gentiopicroside (Gentiopicrin) by Human Intestinal Bacteria

Abstract

As a part of our studies on the metabolism of cude drug components by intestinal bacteria, gentiopicroside (a secoiridoid glucoside from Gentiana lutea), was anaerobically incubated with various defined strains of human intestinal bacteria. Many species had ability to transform it to a series of metabolites. Among them, Veillonella parvula ss parvula produced five metabolites, which were identified as erythrocentaurin, gentiopicral, 5-hydroxymethylisochroman-1-one, 5-hydroxymethylisochromen-1-one and trans-5, 6-dihydro-5-hydroxymethyl-6-methyl-1H, 3H-pyrano[3, 4-c]pyran-1-one.