Fig. 2: Raw garlic juice reduced plasma TMAO formation ability, increased plasma γBB level in healthy TMAO producers, and shaped fecal microbiota composition via increasing the evenness, ɑ-diversity, and relative abundance of specific beneficial bacterial taxa.
a Experimental design, healthy participants (n = 9) were screened for TMAO production using oral carnitine challenge test (OCCT), the criterion for categorization as high-TMAO producers was plasma TMAOMAX > 10 μM. High-TMAO producers (n = 7) subsequently received an intervention of garlic juice (55 mL, equivalent to 48 mg of allicin/day) for 1 week, followed by OCCT; b plasma and c urine TMAO, TMAOMAX, and TMAOAUC; d plasma γBB and γBBAUC. e Principal coordinate analysis (PCoA) plot with Bray−Curtis dissimilarity; f Shannon α-diversity index; g family-level composition of fecal microbiome; h volcano plot of fecal microbiota before and after garlic juice intervention; and i heatmap of the relative abundances of fecal microbiota with a significant difference using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test (P < 0.05). Data are expressed as the mean ± SEM; statistical analyses were performed by using the two-tailed paired Student’s t-test (*P < 0.05; **P < 0.01; and ***P < 0.001). The relative abundance bar plot statistical analysis was performed using a paired Wilcoxon signed-rank test (*P < 0.05). Volcano plot: red points indicate OTUs with a P-value < 0.05 and log2 fold-change > 1; orange points indicate OTUs with a P-value < 0.05; and blue points indicate log2 fold-change > 1.
