Shaoting Li¹, Cong Wang¹, Xichun Peng^1,, Xiyang Wu¹

Recently, the preventive effects of Cinnamomum cassia on several metabolic diseases, e.g. obesity, diabetes, hypertension, have been reported. However, no literature reported on the interaction of phytochemicals from C. cassia and colonic microecology.This study aimed to explore the impact of essential oil and aqueous extracts of C. cassia on rat colonic mucosal morphology and microbiota. After 4-week feed, the rats administrated with aqueous extracts of C. cassia (AEC) resulted in less body-weight gain (45.33g, P<0.01) and those administrated with essential oil of C. cassia (EOC) had no difference in weight gain compared with controls (85.33g vs. 87.67g, P>0.05). AEC rather than EOC decreased villous area and crypt count of rat colonic mucosa significantly (P<0.01). According to the TRFLP analysis, both of the AEC and EOC increased total peak areas of Bacteroidales (P<0.05), as well as changed terminal restriction fragments in different degrees (mainly 76 bp and 614 bp, P<0.01). AEC altered the tested rats’ colonic mucosa and community structure of probably obesity-associated gut microbiota (Bacteroidales). This change potentially resulted in a decreased energy harvest from diet as the rats gained less body weight. Despite EOC up-regulated the total amount and diversity of colon Bacteroidales, its influence on weight gain had scarcely been detected.

cinnamomum cassia, essential oil, aqueous extracts, colon, mucosal morphology, bacteroidales