Plant polysaccharides (PP) demonstrate a diverse array of biological and pharmacological properties. This comprehensive review aims to compile and present the multifaceted roles and underlying mechanisms of plant polysaccharides in various liver diseases. These diseases include non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), alcoholic liver disease (ALD), fibrosis, drug-induced liver injury (DILI), and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). This study aims to elucidate the intricate mechanisms and therapeutic potential of plant polysaccharides, shedding light on their significance and potential applications in the management and potential prevention of these liver conditions. An exhaustive literature search was conducted for this study, utilizing prominent databases such as PubMed, Web of Science, and CNKI. The search criteria focused on the formula \"(plant polysaccharides liver disease) NOT (review)\" was employed to ensure the inclusion of original research articles up to the year 2023. Relevant literature was extracted and analyzed from these databases. Plant polysaccharides exhibit promising pharmacological properties, particularly in the regulation of glucose and lipid metabolism and their anti-inflammatory and immunomodulatory effects. The ongoing progress of studies on the molecular mechanisms associated with polysaccharides will offer novel therapeutic strategies for the treatment of chronic liver diseases (CLDs).

Plant polysaccharides, as prebiotics, fat substitutes, stabilizers, thickeners, gelling agents, thickeners and emulsifiers, have been immensely studied for improving the texture, taste and stability of fermented foods. However, their biological activities in fermented foods are not yet properly addressed in the literature. This review summarizes the classification, chemical structure, extraction and purification methods of plant polysaccharides, investigates their functionalities in fermented foods, especially the biological activities and health benefits. This review may provide references for the development of innovative fermented foods containing plant polysaccharides that are beneficial to health.

Cardiovascular disease is a kind of heart, brain, and blood vessel injury disease by the interaction of various pathological factors. The pathogenesis of cardiovascular disease is complex with various risk factors, including abnormally elevated blood pressure, glucose, and lipid metabolism disorders, atherosclerosis, thrombosis, etc. Plant polysaccharides are a special class of natural products derived from plant resources, which have the characteristics of wide sources, diverse biological activities, and low toxicity or side effects. Many studies have shown that plant polysaccharides improve cardiovascular diseases through various mechanisms such as anti-oxidative stress, restoring the metabolism of biological macromolecules, regulating the apoptosis cascade to reduce cell apoptosis, and inhibiting inflammatory signal pathways to alleviate inflammation. This article reviews the pharmacological effects and protective mechanisms of some plant polysaccharides in modulating the cardiovascular system, which is beneficial for developing more effective drugs with low side effects for management of cardiovascular diseases.

The emergence of the novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2 has pushed forward the world to experience the first pandemic of this century. Any specific drug against this RNA virus is yet to be discovered and presently, the COVID-19 infected patients are being treated symptomatically. During the last few decades, a number of polysaccharides with potential biological activities have been invented from Indian medicinal plants. Many polysaccharides, such as sulfated xylomannan, xylan, pectins, fucoidans, glucans, glucoarabinan, and arabinoxylan from Indian medicinal plants, have been shown to exhibit antiviral and immunomodulating activities. Plant polysaccharides exhibit antiviral activities through interference with the viral life cycle and inhibition of attachment of virus to host cell. Intake of certain immune stimulating plant polysaccharides may also protect from the virus to a certain extent. In process of continuous search for most potent drug, Indian plant polysaccharides may emerge as significant biomaterial to combat COVID-19. This review explores a number of polysaccharides from Indian medicinal plants which showed antiviral and immunomodulating activities. It is aimed to provide an overview about the composition, molecular mass, branching configuration and related bioactivities of polysaccharides which is crucial for their classification as possible drug to induce immune response in viral diseases.

The term hemicellulose groups different polysaccharides with heterogeneous structures, mannans, xyloglucans, mixed-linkage β-glucans and xylans, which differ in their backbone and branches, and in the type and distribution of glycosidic linkages. The enzymatic degradation of these complex polymers requires the concerted action of multiple hemicellulases and auxiliary enzymes. Most commercial enzymes are produced by Trichoderma and Aspergillus species, but recent studies have disclosed Penicillium and Talaromyces as promising sources of hemicellulases. In this review, we summarize the current knowledge on the hemicellulolytic system of these genera, and the role of hemicellulases in the disruption and synthesis of glycosidic bonds. In both cases, the enzymes from Penicillium and Talaromyces represent an interesting alternative for valorization of lignocellulosic biomass in the current framework of circular economy.

Cancer has become a significant public health problem with high disease burden and mortality. At present, radiotherapy and chemotherapy are the main means of treating cancer, but they have shown serious safety problems. The severity of this problem has caused further attention and research on effective and safe cancer treatment methods. Polysaccharides are natural products with anti-cancer activity that are widely present in a lot of plants, and many studies have found that inducing apoptosis of cancer cells is one of their important mechanisms. Therefore, this article reviews the various ways in which plant polysaccharides promote apoptosis of cancer cells. The major apoptotic pathways involved include the mitochondrial pathway, the death receptor pathway, and their upstream signal transduction such as MAPK pathway, PI3K/AKT pathway, and NF-κB pathway. Moreover, the paper has also been focused on the absorption and toxicity of plant polysaccharides with reference to extant literature, making the research more scientific and comprehensive. It is hoped that this review could provide some directions for the future development of plant polysaccharides as anticancer drugs in pharmacological experiments and clinical researches.

Our society is amidst a technological revolution towards a sustainable economy, focused on the development of biobased products in virtually all sectors. In this context, plant polysaccharides, as the most abundant macromolecules present in biomass represent a fundamental renewable resource for the replacement of fossil-based polymeric materials in commodity and engineering applications. However, native polysaccharides have several disadvantages compared to their synthetic counterparts, including reduced thermal stability, moisture absorption and limited mechanical performance, which hinder their direct application in native form in advanced material systems. Thus, polysaccharides are generally used in a derivatized form and/or in combination with other biobased polymers, requiring the compatibilization of such blends and composites. In this review we critically explore the current status and the future outlook of reactive compatibilization strategies of the most common plant polysaccharides in blends with biobased polymers. The chemical processes for the modification and compatibilization of starch and lignocellulosic based materials are discussed, together with the practical implementation of these reactive compatibilization strategies with special emphasis on reactive extrusion. The efficiency of these strategies is critically discussed in the context on the definition of blending and compatibilization from a polymer physics standpoint; this relies on the detailed evaluation of the chemical structure of the constituent plant polysaccharides and biobased polymers, the morphology of the heterogeneous polymeric blends, and their macroscopic behavior, in terms of rheological and mechanical properties.