Table 3.

Research progress on quinoa in regulating intestinal flora of diseases.

Disease	Experimental procedure	Mechanisms	Changes in intestinal flora	Conclusion	Ref.
Obesity	Obese and normal mice were supplemented with whole quinoa, and the changes of intestinal flora were compared between the two groups.	1. Supplementation with the whole quinoa diet protected the body weight of mice. 3. Quinoa upregulated the expression of G protein bile acid-coupled receptor 5 (TGR5) and GLP-1 in the colon, brain, and downregulated the expression of TLR4 in the colon and liverandmarkers of ER stress and oxidative stress in the liver and serum. 4. The whole extract of Quinoa has a prebiotic effect, regulating intestinal flora. 5. The effect of quinoa whole extract on SCFAs production was mediated by intestinal flora.	1. Changes occurred in microbial abundance and metabolic profiles. 2. The number of Bacteroides, Actinomycetes and desulfurizing Vibrio were regulated. 3. The imbalance of intestinal flora was reversed.	1. The whole quinoa supplement diet may be associated with the delay of age-related metabolic diseases of obesity. 2. Quinoa can reduce the body weight, body fat, and fasting blood glucose of HFD obese mice, significantly improve obesity induced by high-fat diet, alleviate abnormal glucose and lipid metabolism, and reverse intestinal flora imbalance.	(76–78)
Liver cancer	Liver cancer was induced in mice and treated with protease inhibitor (pi)-rich salt solution obtained from quinoa.	1. Animals treated with pi showed higher hepatic MPO activity 2. Immune agonists promote hepatocarcinogenesis under pro-tumoral inflammation, reflecting to varying degrees an increase in the proportion of F4/80+ cells in the injured liver and a positive trend in the accumulation of immune mediators (CD68/CD206 ratio) in the intestinal tissue.	Appears to promote the positive impact of gut innate immune modulation on the functional outcome of the microbiome.	1. Potential effects of quinoa extract protease inhibitors on alleviating liver injury 2. Provides new insights into the immunomodulatory activity	(79)
Diabetes	Diabetic model mice were treated with a whole quinoa diet	1. Quinoa diet intervention reduced fasting blood glucose, body weight, blood lipid concentration, and insulin level; reduced HOMA-IR level; improved insulin tolerance and glucose tolerance; and significantly improved IR in db/db mice. 2. The effect of quinoa on T2DM is caused by the changes of intestinal flora and metabolism of the body.	The proportions of Faecalibaculum and Lactobacillus reuteri were increased.	1. Quinoa dietary intervention may ameliorate the diabetic process at the protein level. 2. Quinoa can effectively improve long-term hyperglycemia in diabetic mice, improve glucose tolerance, and enhance insulin sensitivity with few toxic side effects.	(80, 81)
Inflammatory bowel disease	Colitis was induced in a subset of mice from the groups fed AIN-93 M or whole quinoa diets.	1. Reduction in overgrowth of pathogenic bacteria. 2. Increase in gut species richness and diversity.	1. Reduced overgrowth of Escherichia/Shigella and Clostridium difficile. 2. Promote the growth of two genera of Lachnospiraceae.	1. Inhibit the imbalance of intestinal flora. 2. Quinoa has the potential to improve gut health. 3. Compared with DSS treatment, quinoa diet changed the intestinal flora more toward healthy intestinal flora.	(58, 82)