Defatted hempseed meal altered metabolic profile of fermented yogurt and enhanced the ability to alleviate constipation in rats

Background: Hempseeds (Cannabis sativa L.) are rich in easily digestible proteins, fats, polyunsaturated fatty acids, and insoluble fiber, which are of highly nutritional value. Probiotics have been found to relieve constipation, which solved a health problem that constantly troubles most people. Therefore, the changes in the metabolites of fermented yogurt with or without 10% defatted hempseed meal (10% SHY or 0% SHY) were studied and their laxative effects were performed through animal experiment.

Results: Amino acids and peptides, terpene glycosides, carbohydrates, lineolic acids, and fatty acids were found to be the major contributors to the discrimination of metabolic profile between 0% SHY and 10% SHY. The differentially accumulated metabolites may lead to the discrepancy on yogurts’ functionality. Animal experiments showed that 10% SHY treatment prevented constipation by increasing fecal number, fecal water content and small intestinal transit rate, and reducing inflammatory injury in loperamide-induced constipation rats. Further analysis of the gut microbiota revealed that 10% SHY gavage increased the relative abundances of the genera Lactobacillus, Allobaculum, Turicibacter, Oscillibacter, Ruminococcus, and Phascolarctobacterium in the constipated rats, whereas decreased that of Akkermansia, Clostridium_XlVa, Bacteroides, Staphylococcus, and Clostridium_lV. The combination of defatted hempseed meal and probiotics was found to be effective in relieving constipation, probably due to the enriched amino acids and peptides, such as Thr-Leu and lysinoalanine through correlation analysis.

Conclusion: Our findings indicated that defatted hempseed meal in yogurt altered the metabolic profile and effectively alleviated constipation in rats, which is a promising therapeutic candidate for constipation. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.