Table 7.

Comparative evaluation of TCM and positive control with regard to obesity-related metabolic diseases.

Intervention	Research type	Subjects	Outcome	Changes in IM	Disease	Ref
a specifically designed herbal formula (AMC)	Clinical trial	Human	HOMA-β↑; FBG, PBG, HbA1c, HOMA-IR, TC, TG, LDL-C↓	Blautia, Faecalibacterium, Roseburia, Gemmiger, Coprococcus, Megamonas↑	T2DM with hyperlipidemia	(Tong et al., 2018)
Metformin			HOMA-β↑; FBG, PBG, HbA1c, TC, LDL-C↓	Blautia↑; Alistipes, Oscillibacter, Bacteroides↓
Berberine	Animal experiments	Wistar rats	BW, Adiposity index↓	Blautia, Allobaculum, Bacteriodes, Butyricoccus, Lactobacillus↑; Clostridium XlVa, Flavonifractor, Lachnospiracea_inc, Roseburia, Clostridium XI↓	Obesity	(Zhang et al., 2015)
Metformin			BW, Adiposity index↓	Akkermensia, Prevotella, Lactobacillus, Blautia, Allobaculum, Bacteriodes, Butyricoccus↑; Clostridium XlVa, Flavonifractor, Lachnospiracea_inc, Roseburia, Clostridium XI↓
Scutellaria baicalensis+Metformin	Animal experiments	LETO rats	BW, FBG, TC, HOMA-ISI↓	Lactobacillus, Bacteroides↑; Clostridium, Enterobacter↓	T2DM	(Han et al., 2017)
Metformin			BW, FBG, HOMA-ISI↓	/
Psyllium husk	Animal experiments	C57BL/6J mice	BW, TC, TG, LPS, LDL/HDL ratio↓	Firmicutes, Bacteroidetes, Bilophila, Sutterella, Roseburia, Bacteroides, Faecalibacterium, Coprobacillus, Parabacteroides distasonis↑; F/B ratio↓	Obesity with hypercholesterolemia and NAFLD	(Deng et al., 2022)
Orlistat			BW, TC, TG, LPS, LDL/HDL ratio↓	Firmicutes, Bacteroidetes, Sutterella, Akkermansia↑; F/B ratio↓
Polygonatum kingianum	Animal experiments	SD rats	HDL-C↑; BW, FBG, TG, LDL-C, FINS, HOMA-IR↓	Bacteroides, Oscillibacter, Allobaculum, Blautia, Phascolarctobacterium↑; F/B ratio, Proteobacteria, Lactobacillus, Psychrobacter↓	Metabolic syndrome	(Gu et al., 2020)
Simvastatin			HDL-C↑; BW, FBG, TG, LDL-C, FINS, HOMA-IR↓	Proteobacteria↑
Jiang-Tang-San-Huang	Animal experiments	SD rats	HDL-C↑; FBG, TBA, TNF-α, IL-6, IL-1β, TC, TG, LDL, FFA, FINS, AST, ALT, Cr, BUN↓	Romboutsia, Lactobacillus, Turicibacter, Bacteroides, Bifidobacterium, Clostridium-sensu stricto 1↑; F/B ratio↓	T2DM	(Tawulie et al., 2023)
metformin			FBG, TBA, TNF-α, IL-6, IL-1β, FINS↓	/
Fufang-zhenzhu-tiaozhi formula	Animal experiments	C57BL/6 mice	TC, TG, Scr, ACR, Urinary albumin/creatinine ratio, serum creatinine, 24h albuminuria, kidney/body weight ratio, IL-6↓	Bacteroidetes↑; F/B ratio, Weissella, Enterococcus, Akkermansia↓	Diabetic kidney disease	(Lan et al., 2023)
Losartan			IL-6, serum creatinine, urinary albumin/creatinine ratio, 24h albuminuria, kidney/body weight ratio↓	/
Qijian mixture	Animal experiments	KKay mice	BW, FBG↓	Bacteroidetes↑; Firmicutes, Actinobacteria↓	T2DM	(Gao et al., 2018)
Metformin			BW, FBG, INS↓	Bacteroidetes, Proteobacteria↑; Firmicutes, Actinobacteria↓
Scrophulariae Radix and Atractylodes sinensis pair+Metformin	Animal experiments	SD rats	HDL-C↑; BW, FBG, LDL, FPG, PBG, GSP, HOMA-IR↓	Firmicutes, F/B ratio, Lactobacillus, Pediococcus, Clostridium, Dehalobacterium, Ruminococcu↑; Actinobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Butyricicoccus, SMB53, Prevotella↓	T2DM	(Guo et al., 2022)
Metformin			BW, FBG, LDL, FPG, GSP, HOMA-IR↓	Butyricicoccus, SMB53, Clostridium,↑; Lactobacillus, F/B ratio, Prevotella↓
Xiao-Ke-Yin	Animal experiments	db/db mice	BW, FBG, ITT, insulin, HOMA-IR, ALT, AST, TC, TG, FFA, IL-6, TNF-α↓	Bacilli, Lactobacillaceae and Lactobacillus↑; Clostridia, Lachnospircaeae, Tannerellaceae, Parabacteroides↓	T2DM	(Li M. et al., 2023)
Metformin			BW, FBG, ITT, insulin, HOMA-IR, ALT, AST, TC, TG, FFA, IL-6, TNF-α↓	/

BW, body weight; FPG, fasting plasma glucose; PBG, Postprandial blood glucose; HbA1c, hemoglobin A1c; TC, total cholesterol; TG, triglyceride; LDL, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol; HDL, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol; HOMA-IR, homeostasis assessment of insulin resistance; FINS, fasting insulin; FFA, free fatty acid; HOMA-ISI, homeostasis assessment of insulin sensitivity index; IL, interleukin; TNF-α, tumor necrosis factor-α; Scr, serum creatinine.

The “↑” symbol is used to indicate an increase, improvement, or positive change in a quantity.

The “↓” symbol is used to indicate a decrease, decline, or negative change.