Tea and digestive system health: integrating gut microbiota-involved ADME and personalized nutrition for gastrointestinal disorders intervention

The global burden of digestive diseases is escalating, marked by rising incidence and severity. Tea, a widely consumed beverage rich in polyphenols, offers a promising dietary intervention due to its demonstrated capacity to modulate gut microbiota, suppress inflammation, and enhance gastrointestinal barrier function. This review provides a systematic integration of the ADME characteristics of key tea compounds with their complex interplay with the gut microbiome, underscoring the central role of microbial biotransformation in mediating the health benefits of tea. We critically examine the specific protective mechanisms of tea against prevalent gastrointestinal disorders, including gastritis, gastric ulcers, inflammatory bowel disease, irritable bowel syndrome, constipation, and diarrhea. A major focus is placed on the pivotal impact of interindividual variability, shaped by host factors and distinct gut microbial metabolic phenotypes, on the outcomes of tea-based interventions. This synthesis thus advances a novel "component-microbiota-metabolite-host" axis as a unifying framework for understanding tea's pleiotropic mechanisms in gastrointestinal health. Beyond mechanistic insight, the review lays a conceptual foundation and proposes a translational roadmap for developing evidence‑based, personalized tea interventions aligned with precision nutrition.