Reclamation of Chinese herb residues using probiotics and evaluation of their beneficial effect on pathogen infection

Environmental pollution caused by herb residues and the huge waste of medicinal ingredients contained in herb residues hinder the development of traditional Chinese medicine enterprises. To solve this problem, several probiotics were tested, and Lactobacillus plantarum (HM218749) was finally selected for the reuse of herb residues of Jianweixiaoshi tablets. A mouse model of Helicobacter pylori infection was developed to evaluate the anti-H. pylori infection activity of the herb residue fermentation supernatant using a urease activity test, histological imaging, an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and denaturing gel gradient electrophoresis (DGGE). The results demonstrated that the herb residue fermentation supernatant successfully inhibited urease activity, slowed cell infiltration in the gastric area and significantly reduced the production of interleukin-6 (IL-6), IL-8 and TNF-α in the treatment group (p < 0.01). In addition, the DGGE results indicated that the herb residue fermentation supernatant was beneficial for the recovery of the disturbed microbiota in the infected model to the normal condition, in which L. gasseri (GU417842.1) and L. johnsonii (HQ828141.1) were dominant in all groups. Therefore, the probiotics exhibited strong potential for the development of herb residues in this study, and the products showed strong potential in curing H. pylori infections.