Panax ginseng Extract Alleviates Qi Deficiency Liver Cancer via the Gut-Liver Axis: Insights from Metabolomics and Microbiome

Panax ginseng (PG), a valuable functional food known as the "King of Herbs," demonstrates therapeutic potential in the treatment of Qi deficiency liver cancer (QDLC). Regulating the gut-liver axis (GLA) may be an important mechanism of action of PG in the treatment of QDLC; however, its detailed mechanism remains unclear. This study aimed to elucidate this mechanism in QDLC rats using metabolomics and microbiome analysis. Metabolomics and microbiome experiments demonstrate that PG alleviates QDLC by modulating the composition of the gut microbiota, restoring its diversity, improving metabolic disorders, and increasing short-chain fatty acid levels. Antibiotics cocktail treatment, fecal microbiota transplantation, and probiotic colonization experiments further confirmed that PG's role in alleviating QDLC is gut microbiota-dependent. Additionally, PG alleviated GLA damage in QDLC rats by inhibiting the TLR4/MyD88/NF-κB signaling pathway. Collectively, our study provides a novel interpretation of the natural intervention mechanisms for QDLC and confirms the potential value of PG as a functional food.