Gut microbiome-mediated effects of citrus Pu-erh tea: body fat reduction in a human pilot study and metabolic disorders improvement in obese mice

Citrus Pu-erh (CP) tea has gained widespread popularity due to its health benefits, particularly its hypolipidemic and anti-obesity properties. However, human studies on CP tea's metabolic benefits and underlying gut microbiome mechanisms are limited. This study evaluated the impact of CP tea on metabolic health in humans and high-fat diet (HFD)-induced obese mice. In the human pilot study, three weeks of CP tea consumption significantly improved body fat distribution and restructured the gut microbiota by enhancing the relative abundance of Lachnoclostridium, and Lachnospiraceae_UCG_004. Specifically, we found that the baseline Streptococcus level is a potential biomarker predicting CP tea's efficacy in body fat regulation. In obese mice, CP tea intervention significantly improved HFD-induced weight gain, dyslipidemia, hepatic lipid accumulation, and brain impairment. Integrated 16S rRNA sequencing and untargeted metabolomics revealed profound CP tea-induced modifications in microbial composition and cecal metabolite profiles, particularly elevating L-theanine, theophylline, and norepinephrine while reducing 1-methylxanthine. These metabolites also showed a strong correlation with microbiome and metabolic outcomes. These findings suggest that CP tea offers significant metabolic health benefits by modulating gut microbiome and related metabolites, and it may help with individualized nutritional management of tea's intervention.