According to "Popular Science China", the entry of polysaccharide shows that polysaccharide is a high molecular carbohydrate composed of sugar chains bound by glycosidic bonds and at least 10 monosaccharides, which can be represented by the general formula (c6h10o5) n.
The "polysaccharide" that is often concerned in the field of health and medicine is actually "non-starch polysaccharide", and it is worth mentioning that "starch" itself belongs to polysaccharide. In fact, we should have a deeper understanding of the importance of polysaccharides. In short, polysaccharide compounds are widely found in animal cell membranes and cell walls of plants and microorganisms. They are high-molecular polymers formed by connecting aldehyde groups and ketone groups through glycosidic bonds, and they are also one of the four basic substances that constitute life.
Non-starch polysaccharides, such as Poria cocos polysaccharide, Lentinus edodes polysaccharide, Tremella fuciformis polysaccharide and Lycium barbarum polysaccharide, have various kinds and complex structures and special biological activities. These polysaccharides can regulate the immune function of human body, and are immunomodulators, which can activate immune receptors and improve the immune function of the body. For example, they can activate T, B lymphocytes, macrophages, NK cells and other immune cells and complement, promote the production of cytokines, and play a variety of regulatory roles in the immune system.
At present, many functions of polysaccharide itself beneficial to human health have been recognized by scientific research institutes, such as enhancing human immunity. If you really understand the field of health care, it is not a bad thing to pay attention to polysaccharides. However, it should be noted that if there is any kind of propaganda under the banner of "curing all diseases", it is definitely unreliable.
Second, the research status of polysaccharides
Polysaccharide is widely known in the field of health, mainly because the study of "Lentinus edodes polysaccharide" in Nature in 1960s proved that "Lentinus edodes polysaccharide" has certain anticancer effect.
In fact, in recent years, the research on polysaccharides has been further expanded, especially after Chinese medicine has received more and more attention in the world, it has become an important direction of polysaccharide research to further carry out scientific experiments and deconstruction around polysaccharide components contained in some Chinese herbal medicines.
For example, the figure below shows the spectrum of β-D- glucan content in lentinan detected by acid enzymatic hydrolysis -HPLC. Simply put, it is to further study the hydrolysis of β-D- -d-glucan contained in lentinan. β-D- glucan is the main active component of lentinan, and its content is one of the main indexes to characterize the quality of lentinan products.
In addition to the research of component analysis, academic circles also pay great attention to the research and carding of different functions (healthy direction) of various polysaccharides. For example, Dr. Liao Wenzhen of South China University of Technology's research on the functional antitumor drugs of dictyophora indusiata polysaccharide shows that dictyophora indusiata polysaccharide DP 1 has significant immunoregulatory activity, can specifically interact with membrane surface receptor CR3 of mouse macrophage RAW264.7, activate immune response through a series of possible signal transduction pathways (PI3K/Akt/MAPK/NF-κB), and promote immune factors NO and TNF-. In addition, DP 1 has good thermal stability and acid-base stability, and it still has certain immunoregulation activity after being treated with high temperature (145℃), strong acid (pH=2) and strong alkali (pH= 10).
In a word, polysaccharide/compound polysaccharide does have a positive effect from the health point of view, but the scientifically verified efficacy of polysaccharide needs to be understood according to different types of polysaccharide and its performance in different fields, and analyzed on the basis of scientific verification. It is easy to understand that "lentinan" can improve human immunity and even play a certain role in inhibiting tumors.