Bacteria are often maligned as the cause of human and animal diseases. Despite this characterisation, certain bacteria such as Acetobacter sp. and lactic acid bacteria were found to produce polysaccharides, function as antibiotics and find use as food additives (Sutherland, 2001). Over the past 20 years, a new class of microbial product – microbial polysaccharide – has been grown for industrial...

Ganoderma lucidum polysaccharides have protective effects against apoptosis in neurons exposed to ischemia/reperfusion injury, but the mechanisms are unclear. The goal of this study was to investigate the underlying mechanisms of the effects of ganoderma lucidum polysaccharides against oxidative stress-induced neuronal apoptosis. Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) was used to induce apoptosis in cultured...

The major hydrodynamic properties of the connective-tissue polysaccharides are those that describe polysaccharide-water interaction as embodied in their osmotic-pressure and hydraulic-conductivity properties. This study shows that, for polysaccharides such as chondroitin sulphate, hyaluronate and the heparin-like polysaccharides, their hydrodynamic properties depend primarily on the presence of...

The effects of different Radix ranunculi ternati extracts on human gastric cancer BGC823 cells were investigated, different methods were used to extract the saponins and polysaccharides from Radix ranunculi ternati, and MTT assay and colony formation assay were used to observe the effects of saponins and polysaccharides from Radix ranunculi ternati on in-vitro cultured human gastric cancer BGC8...

Prebiotic oligosaccharides, with a degree of polymerization (DP) of mostly less than 10, exhibit diverse biological activities that contribute to human health. Currently available prebiotics are mostly derived from disaccharides and simple polysaccharides found in plants. Subtle differences in the structures of oligosaccharides can cause significant differences in their prebiotic proper-ties. T...

Phellinus linteus and igniarius (L.) Quel. have been used in traditional Asian medicine for over two centuries against a variety of diseases. Polysaccharides from their fruiting bodies show strong immunomodulatory activity. In this study we characterized the structure and composition of polysaccharides from Phellinus linteus and Phellinus igniarius by HPLC, GC-MS and NMR (1-H, 13-C, COSY, NOESY...

The mycelia polysaccharides from Morchella esculenta are active ingredients in a number of medicines that play important roles in immunity improvement and tumor growth inhibition. So far, the production of polysaccharides from M. esculenta mycelia has not been commercialized. The aims of this work were to screen and optimize the fermentation conditions to produce mycelia polysaccharides from us...

A fingerprint analysis method has been developed for characterization and discrimination of polysaccharides from different Ganoderma by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) coupled with chemometrics means. The polysaccharides were extracted under ultrasonic-assisted condition, and then partly hydrolyzed with trifluoroacetic acid. Monosaccharides and oligosaccharides in the hydrolyzates...

Lingonberry (Vaccinium vitis-idaea L.) is a small northern fruit that has been harvested historically by native North Americans and Northern Europeans. These berries have been traditionally consumed as food and for medicinal use. Lingonberries are reported to be rich in vitamin C, benzoic acid, and anthocyanins, which have been implicated in health benefits associated with the consumption of li...

The cell-wall polysaccharides of Arabidopsis thaliana leaves have been isolated, purified, and characterized. The primary cell walls of all higher plants that have been studied contain cellulose, the three pectic polysaccharides homogalacturonan, rhamnogalacturonan I and rhamnogalacturonan II, the two hemicelluloses xyloglucan and glucuronoarabinoxylan, and structural glycoproteins. The cell wa...