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BACKGROUND Feruloyl oligosaccharides (FOs), the ferulic acid ester of oligosaccharides, may possess the physiological functions of both ferulic acid and oligosaccharides, including antioxidative activity and gut microbiota modulation capacity. The aim of this study was to investigate whether FOs could regulate the intestinal antioxidative capacity of rats by modulating the MAPKs/Nrf2 signaling pathway and gut microbiota. Thirty Wistar rats were randomly divided into five groups. Rats received a standard diet and were gavaged once daily with 0.85% normal saline, 100 mg kg-1 BW vitamin C or FOs solution at doses of 20, 40 and 80 mg kg-1 BW for 21 d. RESULTS FOs strengthened the antioxidative capacity of the jejunum, as evidenced by increased in contents of catalase, superoxide dismutase, glutathione peroxidase, as well as glutathione. Moreover, FOs administration upregulated the mRNA expression level of antioxidant-related genes in the jejunum (glutamate-cysteine ligase catalytic subunit, glutamate-cysteine ligase modifier subunit and heme oxygenase-1. Increases in phosphorylation levels of Nrf2, p38 and JNK were also observed. Administration with 40 mg kg-1 FOs altered the structure and composition of the cecal microbiota, which was illustrated by the increased the relative abundances of Actinobacteria, Proteobacteria and Acidobacteriota, and the decreased the relative abundances of Firmicutes, Lachnospiraceae_NK4A136_group, and Blautia. Furthermore, Spearman's correlation analysis revealed that the altered cecal microbiota closely correlated with jejunal antioxidative capacity of rats. CONCLUSION FOs could be used as an antioxidant for gut heath improvement through modulating p38/JNK-Nrf2 signaling pathway and gut microbiota. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.