The Orchid That Renovates Your Gut (Gently)

The Orchid That Renovates Your Gut (Gently)

Dendrobium officinale is an orchid that’s made its way from Traditional Chinese Medicine into modern science.

Read: Traditional Uses, Phytochemistry, Pharmacology, and Quality Control of Dendrobium officinale

To summarize its benefits, we’ll quote from Dr. Paharia’s article featured in our “what’s happening in the health world” section all so recently:

❝Gut microbes process Dendriobium officinale polysaccharides (DOPs) in the colon, producing short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) and oligosaccharides that alter gut microbial composition and improve human health.

DOPs have been shown to decrease harmful bacteria like E. coli and Staphylococcus while promoting beneficial ones like Bifidobacterium.❞

Source: The future of functional foods: leveraging Dendrobium officinale for optimal gut health and disease prevention

We don’t stop at secondary sources, though, so we took a look at the science.

Dr. Wu et al. found (we’ll quote directly for these bullet points):

• DOPs have been shown to influence the gut microbiota, such as the abundance of Lactobacillus, Bifidobacterium, Akkermansia, Bacteroides, and Prevotella, and provide different benefits to the host due to structural differences.
• The dietary intake of DOPs has been shown to improve the composition of the gut microbiome and offers new intervention strategies for metabolic diseases such as obesity and type 2 diabetes as well as inflammatory diseases such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and colitis.
• Compared to drug therapy, intervention with DOPs is not specific and has a longer intervention duration

Source: Structure, Health Benefits, Mechanisms, and Gut Microbiota of Dendrobium officinale Polysaccharides: A Review

This is consistent with previous research on Dendrobium officinale, such as last year’s:

❝DOP significantly increased benign intestinal microbe proportion (Lactobacillus, etc.), but reduced harmful bacteria (Escherichia shigella) (P < 0.05), and significantly increased butyric acid production (P < 0.05)❞

Source: Dendrobium officinale Xianhu 2 polysaccharide helps forming a healthy gut microbiota and improving host immune system

In summary…

Research so far indicates that this does a lot of good for the gut, in a way that can “kickstart” healthier, self-regulating gut microbiota.

As to its further prospects, check out:

Dendrobium as a new natural source of bioactive for the prevention and treatment of digestive tract diseases: a comprehensive review with future perspectives

Very promising!

Where can I get it?

We don’t sell it, but for your convenience here’s an example product on Amazon 😎

Be warned, it is expensive though!