{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,22]],"date-time":"2026-09-22T06:05:03Z","timestamp":1790057103798,"version":"4.0.1"},"reference-count":53,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,22]],"date-time":"2026-09-22T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1790035200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001809","name":"National Natural Science Foundation of China","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001809","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Pharmacol."],"abstract":"<jats:p>\n                    Obesity is closely associated with excessive adipose accumulation, chronic low-grade inflammation, and gut microbiota dysbiosis. Although needle extracts from several\n                    <jats:italic>Pinus<\/jats:italic>\n                    species have been reported to attenuate body weight gain and modulate the gut microbiota, the pharmacological properties of\n                    <jats:italic>Pinus squamata<\/jats:italic>\n                    X.W. Li\u2014an endangered coniferous species endemic to northeastern Yunnan, China\u2014remain largely unexplored. This study evaluated the effects of\n                    <jats:italic>Pinus squamata<\/jats:italic>\n                    needle extract (PSNE) on high-fat diet (HFD)-induced obesity in mice. Our results demonstrated that PSNE significantly mitigated HFD-induced body weight gain, adipose accumulation, hepatic steatosis and injury, dyslipidaemia, oxidative stress, and systemic low-grade inflammation, while concomitantly improving glucose homeostasis. Furthermore, 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing of cecal contents revealed that PSNE increased amplicon sequence variant (ASV) richness and \u03b1-diversity, remodelled the cecal microbiota, and reversed HFD-associated dysbiosis. These beneficial alterations were characterised by significant enrichment of taxa with reported metabolic benefits, such as\n                    <jats:italic>Bacteroides<\/jats:italic>\n                    , Muribaculaceae and Ruminococcaceae, together with a concomitant reduction in obesity-associated lineages. Collectively, these findings establish PSNE as a promising preclinical candidate for alleviating obesity and related metabolic disorders, potentially through targeted remodelling of the cecal microbiota.\n                  <\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3389\/fphar.2026.1906430","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,22]],"date-time":"2026-09-22T05:39:19Z","timestamp":1790055559000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Needle extracts of Pinus squamata X.W. Li ameliorate obesity and modulate cecal microbiota in high-fat diet-induced obese mice"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"17","author":[{"given":"Xun","family":"Zhang","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"State Key Laboratory of Discovery and Utilization of Functional Components in Traditional Chinese Medicine, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Guizhou Medical University","place":["Guian New Area, Guizhou, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Tianshuang","family":"Wang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"State Key Laboratory of Discovery and Utilization of Functional Components in Traditional Chinese Medicine, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Guizhou Medical University","place":["Guian New Area, Guizhou, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Hong","family":"Chen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Traditional Chinese Pharmacy, China Pharmaceutical University","place":["Nanjing, Jiangsu, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Yanping","family":"Hu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Research Institute, Management Bureau of Yaoshan National Nature Reserve","place":["Zhaotong, Yunnan, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Lei","family":"Tang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"State Key Laboratory of Discovery and Utilization of Functional Components in Traditional Chinese Medicine, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Guizhou Medical University","place":["Guian New Area, Guizhou, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Shuai","family":"Chang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"State Key Laboratory of Discovery and Utilization of Functional Components in Traditional Chinese Medicine, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Guizhou Medical University","place":["Guian New Area, Guizhou, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,22]]},"reference":[{"key":"B1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"453","DOI":"10.1080\/0972060x.2021.1943541","article-title":"Chemical composition, anti-radical and antibacterial activities of essential oils from needles of Pinus halepensis mill., P. pinaster aiton., and P. pinea L","volume":"24","author":"Aloui","year":"2021","journal-title":"J. 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