Microbiome of fermented Artemisia annua
Extracts of medicinal plants, fermented by defined microbial co-cultures or by the autochthonous microbial community, are considered as promising sources of novel and health-promoting metabolites. The fermentation of Artemisia annua, well known for its potent and pharmacologically active compounds, has only been studied little in this respect. We compared two standardized methods to ferment A. annua using the autochthonous microbial community according to the official GHP standards. One method is based on an aqueous fermentation, whereas in the other whey is added. In both methods, the bacterial community responded within the first week during the 180 day-fermentation period by rapid growth and a subsequent decline in cell numbers whereas the fungal community responded only little. In the bacterial community, lactic acid bacteria became dominant after day four with minor differences between both methods, but a lower diversity of the subdominant Enterobacterales in the whey-supplemented method.The fungal community underwent only minor compositional changes. A striking difference was the very low endotoxin concentration in the whey-supplemented method as compared to the aqueous fermentation. In line with these results, the proinflammatory cell response, determined by an assay with human immune reporter cells, was lower in the method with whey than without. The application of whey as fermentation additive was found to be a promising tool to reduce the formation of endotoxins and to mitigate pro-inflammatory effects of the aqueous A. annua extracts. This effect might be also valuable for other fermentations.
Extracts of medicinal plants, fermented by defined microbial co-cultures or by the autochthonous microbial community, are considered as promising sources of novel and health-promoting metabolites. The fermentation of Artemisia annua, well known for its potent and pharmacologically active compounds, has only been studied little in this respect. We compared two standardized methods to ferment A. annua using the autochthonous microbial community according to the official GHP standards. One method is based on an aqueous fermentation, whereas in the other whey is added. In both methods, the bacterial community responded within the first week during the 180 day-fermentation period by rapid growth and a subsequent decline in cell numbers whereas the fungal community responded only little. In the bacterial community, lactic acid bacteria became dominant after day four with minor differences between both methods, but a lower diversity of the subdominant Enterobacterales in the whey-supplemented method.The fungal community underwent only minor compositional changes. A striking difference was the very low endotoxin concentration in the whey-supplemented method as compared to the aqueous fermentation. In line with these results, the proinflammatory cell response, determined by an assay with human immune reporter cells, was lower in the method with whey than without. The application of whey as fermentation additive was found to be a promising tool to reduce the formation of endotoxins and to mitigate pro-inflammatory effects of the aqueous A. annua extracts. This effect might be also valuable for other fermentations.
WALA Heilmittel GmbH