Fig. 5

Barley leaf (BL) alters metabolic profiling and enriched microbiota-derived purine metabolites. a–h Mice were fed with a standard chow diet (CD) or an isocaloric BL-supplemented diet for two weeks. a, b Partial least-squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) of metabolomic profiles in colonic contents (n = 5) and serum (n = 6) of CD- and BL-fed mice. c, d Heat map of significantly altered metabolites in colonic contents (n = 5) and serum (n = 6) of CD- and BL-fed mice. Metabolites with the Variable importance in the projection (VIP) value of PLS-DA model >1 and the P values of Student’s t test < 0.05 were considered to be significantly different. e, f Pathway enrichment analysis of the significantly altered metabolites in colonic contents and serum of CD- and BL-fed mice. The x-axis represents the pathway impact, and the y-axis represents the pathway enrichment. g, h Concentrations of inosine and guanosine in colonic contents and serum of CD- and BL-fed mice (n = 8). AB, antibiotics. Data are pooled from three independent experiments (g and h). Data are mean ± SEM. ***P < 0.001 and ****P < 0.0001. Statistical analysis was performed by one-way ANOVA followed by Tukey’s multiple comparisons test