Table 1.

Effect of dietary pulses on gut microbiota-related changes in rodents and humans.

Pulse-Type	Cohort	State of Cohort	Age	Dose	Duration of Study	Key Shifts in Gut Microbiota	Outcome	References
Cooked chickpeas	Human	Healthy	18–65 years	200 g/d	3 weeks	Phylum ↑ Bacteroidetes Genus ↑ Megasphaera ↓ Clostridium I, II, IV, XI clusters Species ↑ Faecalibacterium prausnitzii ↓ Subdoligranulum ↓ Clostridium histolyticum, Clostridium lituseburense groups	Reduction in pathogenic and putrefactive gut bacteria species in cohorts Less intestinal colonization by ammonia-producing bacterial species	[72]
Cooked pinto beans	Human	Healthy; Pre-metabolic syndrome	18–51 years	130 g/d	12 weeks + 4 weeks run-in	Species ↑ Peptostreptococcus productus ↓ Eubacterium limosum	High propionate production Lower serum total cholesterol, LDL, and HDL	[73]
Cooked navy bean powder	Human	Colorectal cancer survivors (overweight and obese)	47–81 years	35 g/d	28 days	Species ↑ Clostridium sp., ↑ Lachnospira sp., ↑ Coprococcus sp. ↓ Bacteroides fragilis ↓ Anaerostipe sp.	Boost in microbial richness compared baseline for colorectal cancer survivors but had no effect on their diversity	[74]
Cooked navy beans (incorporated in meals and snacks)	Human	Colorectal cancer survivors (overweight and obese)	NB: 60.9 ± 11.0 years Control: 65.50 ± 3.07 years	35 g/d	4 weeks		Thirty and twenty-six significant metabolite differences in stool samples from baseline and control, respectively Navy bean-derived metabolites (247/560) including N-methylpipecolate, 2-aminoadipate, piperidine, and vanillate Abundance of ophthalmate increased by 5.25 fold	[75]
Beans, chickpeas, peas, or lentils-based foods	Human	Healthy	57 ± 6.3	150 g/d	4 months		Reduction in total cholesterol and LDC by 8.3% and 7.9%	[76]
Dolichos lablab L. (standardized extract)	Mice (C57BL/6 male)	IBS model	7 weeks	100–400 mg/kg	15 days		Minimized weight loss with no effect on food intake Attenuated zymosan-induced colonic macroscopic scores Reduced mast cell count, TNF-α in the colon Reduced visceral pain-related behaviors Dose-dependent reduction of c-Fos expression in the brain	[77]
Chickpea supplemented diet	Mice (C57BL/6 male)	Healthy	5 weeks	200 g/kg diet	3 weeks	Family ↓ Clostridiaceae (feces only) ↓ Peptococcaceae Genus ↑ Prevotella ↑ Dorea Species ↑ Ruminococcus flavefaciens ↓ Bifidobacterium pseudolongum ↓ Parabacteroides distansonis ↓ Undefined sp. in the Ruminococcus genus (cecal only) ↓ Lactococcus ↓ Turicibacter	Enhanced colon crypt mucus content and mucin mRNA expression Improved expression of epithelial tight junction proteins Enhanced metagenomic functions (e.g., ↑ butanoate metabolism; ↑ flavonoid biosynthesis) Increased SCFAs production Enhanced taxa richness in the cecum	[65]
Cooked white and dark red kidney beans	Mice (C57BL/6 male)	DSS induced colitis	5 weeks	BD + 20% beans	3 weeks		Enhanced acetate, butyrate, and propionate production Increased colon crypt height, and MUC1 and Relmβ mRNA expression Reduced serum levels of IL-17A, TNF-α, IFN-γ, IL-1β, and IL-6	[66]
Cooked Navy bean or black bean	Mice (C57Bl/6 male)	Healthy	4 weeks	Supplementation @20% to the basal diet	3 weeks	Genus ↑ Prevotella ↑ S24-7 ↑ undefined genera within the Clostridiales order and Coriobacteriaceae family (BB only) ↓ Oscillospira, ↓ Ruminococcus ↓ Coprococcus ↓ Lactococcus, ↓ Streptococcus ↓ rc4-4 ↓ Coprobacillus ↓ Parabacteroides ↓ Aldercreutzia ↓ unassigned members o Peptococcaceae, Erysipelotrichaceae, Clostridiaceae, Mogibacteriaeae, Peptostreptococcaceae, Christensenellaceae, and Rikenellaceae families Species ↑ Ruminococcus flavefaciens ↓ Ruminococcus gnavus ↓ Clostridium perfringens (NB only) ↓ undefined species in the Lachnospiraceae family (BB only)	Enhanced SCFAs production and expression of receptors GPR-41, 43, 109 Increased crypt length, epithelial cell proliferation, goblet cell number, crypt mucus level, and mucin mRNA expression Reduced serum endotoxin concentration Enhanced apical junctional complex components (occludin, JAM-A, ZO-1, and E-cadherin)	[29]
Cranberry beans	Mice (C57BL/6 male)	Healthy and DSS induced colitis	5 weeks	BD + 20% beans	3 weeks	Family ↑ Prevotellaceae ↓ Lactobacillaceae ↓ Clostridiaceae ↓ Peptococcaceae ↓ Peptostreptococcaceae ↓ Rikenellaceae ↓ Pophyromonadacea Genus ↑ S24-7 Species ↓ Ruminococcus gnavus ↓ Clostridium perfringens	In healthy cohorts: Increased cecal SCFAs, colon crypt height, crypt goblet cell number, and mucus content Enhanced expression of Muc1, Klf4, Relmβ, and Reg3γ In diseased cohorts: Reduced disease severity and colonic histological damage Increased gene expression of barrier function genes (Relmβ, Muc1-3, and Reg3γ) Diminishing of colonic and circulating inflammatory cytokines (IL-1β, IFNγ, IL-6, and TNF-α)	[78]
Lentil, chickpea, bean, and dry pea	Mice (C57BL/6NCrl mice)	Healthy	3–4 weeks	40 g/100 g obesogenic diet (by replacing 35% protein)	17 weeks	Phylum ↑ Bacteroidetes (highest in lentil) ↑ Verrucomicrobia (in bean and lentil) ↓ Firmicutes ↓ Proteobacteria Family ↑ Muribaculaceae ↑ Rikenellaceae ↑ Mogibacteriaceae ↓ Peptococcaceae ↓ Christensenellaceae Genus ↑ Allobaculum ↑ Sutterella (II) ↑ rc4 4 (of Peptococcaceae), ↑ RF32 (of Alphaproteobacteria) ↓ Oscillospira ↓ Dorea ↓ Lactococcus ↓ Streptococcus Species ↑ B. acidifaciens ↑ B. pullicaecorum ↓ R. gnavus ↓ M. schaedleri ↓ C. methylpentosum	High a-diversity, especially for chickpea and dry pea High b-diversity Altered gut microbiota suggestive of anti-obesogenic physiologic outcomes	[18]
Cooked red lentils	Mice (C57Bl/6 male)	Healthy	5 weeks	20% w/w basal diet	3 weeks	Phylum ↑ Firmicutes ↓ Bacteroidetes Family ↓ Parabacteroides Genus ↑ Coprococcus ↑ Dorea ↑ Roseburia ↑ Turicibacter ↑ Prevotella ↑ Unknown genus belonging to the Lachnospiraceae family	Improved fecal microbiota α-diversity Abundance of SCFA producing bacteria Increased mRNA expression of SCFA receptors (GPR 41,43), tight junction proteins (E-cadherin, Zona Occulden-1 Claudin-2)	[64]
Chickpea, lentil, dry peas, and bean	Mice (C57BL/6 male)	Obese	3–4 weeks	40% w/w diet	17 weeks	Phylum ↑ Bacteroidetes ↓ Firmicutes (statistically significant in bean and lentil diet) Species ↑ Akkermansia muciniphila (bean and lentil fed diet only)	Three fold elevation of bacterial count in the cecum 2.2–5 fold increase in Bacteroidetes to Firmicutes ratio Reduced lipid accumulation in adipose tissue Decreased subcutaneous and visceral fat mass compared to high-fat control but greater compared to a low-fat control 108 differential metabolites identified related to pulse types	[8]
Whole mung bean	Mice (C57BL/6 male)	Diet-induced obesity (1 w HFD feeding)	4 weeks	HFD + 30% bean	12 weeks	Phylum ↑ Bacteroidetes ↓ Firmicutes Family ↑ Lachnospiraceae ↑ Ruminococcaceae ↓ unassigned member of Lachnospiraceae Genus ↑ Blautia ↑ unassigned member of Muribaculaceae ↑ Turicibacter ↑ Akkermansia ↑ Bacteroides ↑ Bifidobacterium ↓ Ruminiclostridium ↓ Mucispirillum ↓ Ruminiclostridium ↓ unassigned member of Ruminococcaceae ↓ Oscillibacter	Reduction in hepatic steatosis Reduction in body weight gain, fat accumulation, and adipocyte size Significant a- and b- diversity Ameliorated insulin resistance and glucose tolerance Normalization of HFD-induced gut microbiota dysbiosis	[68]
Lentil (Lens culinaris Medikus)	Rats (Sprague−Dawley)	Healthy	8 weeks	70.8% red lentil diet	6 weeks	Phylum ↑ Actinobacteria ↑ Bacteroidetes ↓ Firmicutes Family ↓ Lachnospiraceae ↓ Streptococcaceae Species ↑ Shutterworthia satelle	Reduced mean body weight Reduction in body fat and blood plasma triglycerol levels	[79]
Yellow pea flour	Rats	Diet-induced obesity (5 w HFD feeding)	5 weeks	30% w/w diet	42 days	Phylum ↓ Firmicutes Species ↓ C. leptum (cluster IV)	Attenuated weight gain Low body fat	[70]
Whole yellow pea flour	Hamster (Golden Syrian)	Hypercholesterolemic diet (28 days)	2 weeks	10% replacement of corn starch with pea flour in the diet	28 days	Order ↑ Lactobacillales Genus ↑ Unclassified clostridia ↑ Bacilli	Reduced insulin levels High energy expenditure	[80]

NB: navy bean; BB: black bean; DSS: dextran sodium sulphate; IBS: irritable bowel syndrome; BD: basal diet; ↑: increased; ↓: decreased.