Impact of Combined Botanical Functional Ingredients on the Canine Gut Microbiome

The canine gut microbiome plays a key role in digestive, immune, and metabolic health and is increasingly recognized as an important indicator of overall animal well-being. Medicinal and Aromatic Plants are emerging as a promising approach to support intestinal balance through modulation of the gut microbiome. This pilot study evaluated the effects of Aloe vera, Artemisia annua, and Curcuma longa on the gut microbiome of healthy dogs. The study included eighteen healthy dogs, divided into an Experimental group (n = 9) and a Control group (n = 9). Dogs in the Experimental group received a daily combination of the three plants for 30 days, while Control dogs received microcrystalline cellulose as a placebo. Fecal samples were collected on Day 30 and analyzed using shotgun metagenomic sequencing. Differential abundance analysis revealed an enrichment of taxa associated with short-chain fatty acid production in the Experimental group, including Megasphaera elsdenii, Blautia, Butyricimonas, Bacteroides, and Phascolarctobacterium, together with a reduction in opportunistic and dysbiosis-associated taxa, such as Enterocloster bolteae, Anaerobiospirillum spp., and Stenotrophomonas maltophilia. Functional profiling showed a reduction in pathways related to virulence-associated mechanisms and iron siderophore systems, alongside an increase in pathways associated with GABA and putrescine metabolism and serine endopeptidase activity. Overall, these findings suggest that supplementation with these functional botanical ingredients may promote a more balanced and functionally beneficial gut microbiome in healthy dogs.