Citation :

Niranjan Ram, Monika, "Exploring Microbial Biotransformation of Electro-Homoeopathic Plant Constituents and Its Relevance to Diabetes Mellitus," International Journal of Medical Science, vol. 13, no. 5, pp. 1-11, 2026. Crossref, https://doi.org/10.14445/23939117/IJMS-V13I5P101

Abstract

Diabetes mellitus is a complex metabolic condition characterized by insulin resistance, β-cell dysfunction and chronic inflammation and host–microbial interactions. Plant preparations are composed of several phytochemicals that are known to have a wide range of biological effects and bioavailability in the gut, which could significantly be influenced by the gut microbiota. Microorganisms in the intestine have the enzymic capacity to break, hydrogenate, reduce, dehydroxylate, and hydrolyse natural substances, producing metabolites with different characteristics than their parent substances. Electro-Homoeopathy is a system of botanical medicine that uses plant essences in complex medicines, but so far, there is not much information about the microbial biotransformation of the plant matter components of these medicines. A perspective review of potential relationships between microbial degradation of components of Electro-Homeo plants and mechanisms related to diabetes, focusing on the case of Hydrastis canadensis and the component berberine. Conversion of berberine to dihydroberberine by the intestinal bacteria offers a mechanistic rationale. Phenolic compounds, polyphenols, microbial metabolites, short-chain fatty acids, bile acid signalling, intestinal barrier function, inflammation and insulin sensitivity are also taken into account in the review. Currently, there is little evidence indicating that the whole Electro-Homoeopathic formulation has anticariogenic effects mediated by the microbiota. Thus, this association has to be considered as a mechanistic hypothesis that can be tested but not accepted as a therapeutic mechanism. Future research associating formulation identification with LC–HRMS/MS, anaerobic microbial transformation, rapidly needs to be completed, with metagenomics and metabolomics, followed by functional validation, to establish pathways. This approach will move the field forward by experimental testing of relationships between botanical constituents and the diabetes-related biology of gut microbial metabolism. New constituents produced by microbial transformations might change the biological destiny of electrohomoeopathic plant constituents, and the formulation-level antidiabetic activity in these components is not confirmed and should be tested chemically, microbiologically, and metabolomically in addition to being functionally assessed.

Keywords

Berberine, Dihydroberberine, Gut microbiota, Insulin resistance, Metabolomics, Short-chain fatty acids.

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