Ms. Sadaat Altaf Kanth will present her APS as per the details
Date: Tuesday, 30th September 2025
Time: 0900 – 1000 hrs.
Venue: C-TARA Conference Room No.1
Title: Polyphenols: Enhancing Gut Microbiome Metabolites for Improved Health
Supervisors: Prof. Amit Arora, Prof. Sushil Dhital, Prof. Antonio Patti
RPC Members: Prof. Swati Patankar, Prof. Dindi Kuru, Prof. Lavaraj Devkota
Abstract:
The world stands at a critical nutritional crossroads, with the global population projected to reach 9.7 billion by 2050, creating urgent challenges for food systems, health, and sustainability. Ensuring adequate and nutritious diets for all has become a major public health priority, as nutritional imbalances are increasingly aggravated by poor dietary diversity and the widespread consumption of ultra-processed foods high in sugars, fats, and salt but deficient in fibre and micronutrients. Such dietary patterns contribute to gut dysbiosis, a disruption of intestinal microbial ecology closely linked to impaired immune regulation, chronic low-grade inflammation, and metabolic dysfunction. These processes underpin the alarming global rise of non-communicable diseases (NCDs), particularly metabolic disorders, which now account for 74% of deaths worldwide.
Against this backdrop, dietary polyphenols have emerged as promising bioactive compounds with the potential to restore microbial balance and improve host metabolism. Their clinical translation is limited by low intestinal bioavailability and an incomplete mechanistic understanding of their interaction with the gut microbiome. This review synthesises current evidence on the role of polyphenols in shaping gut microbial composition and activity, with emphasis on their bidirectional interactions. Polyphenols, such as punicalagin from pomegranate peel, influence microbial diversity, while gut microbes metabolise them into bioactive compounds with anti-inflammatory properties. However, the therapeutic potential of these metabolites is constrained by challenges in stability and colonic delivery. Fibre-assisted strategies are proposed as synergistic approaches that stabilise polyphenols during upper-gut transit, promote co-fermentation and enhance production of SCFAs, which mediate anti-inflammatory effects, linking microbial metabolism to host metabolic outcomes.
To bridge mechanistic gaps, an integrated research framework combining predictive bioinformatics, advanced in vitro gut fermentation models, high-resolution metabolite profiling, and multi-omics approaches is needed. These tools represent powerful and novel tools for elucidating the molecular mechanisms underlying polyphenol-microbiome interactions, an area that remains largely unexplored.
Outcomes are expected to deliver mechanistic insight into fibre-polyphenol-microbiome synergy, identify actionable biomarkers, and inform the rational design of next-generation synbiotic formulations and personalised nutrition strategies to mitigate inflammation-associated metabolic disease.