Title : Prebiotic functions and health benefits of bioactive natural polysaccharides
Abstract:
The human gut is populated by a huge number of microbial organisms, generally known as the gut microbiota. The gut microbiota plays an important role in human health, affecting the digestive, immune and other host functions. Conversely, the dysbiosis of gut microbiota is implicated in the development and outcomes of human diseases and disorders. Prebiotic is a term for a class of carbohydrate fibers that are selectively metabolized by certain bacteria in the gut microbiota, conferring a health benefit to the host. In other words, the health benefits of prebiotics are the results from their fermentative metabolism in the gut microbiota and modulation of the gut microbial composition. Polysaccharides represent one of the most abundant components of many food and medicinal materials originated from plants, fungi, algae and other living organisms. Many polysaccharides have special health benefits and notable bioactivities such as antitumor, immunomodulation, antioxidant, and anti-inflammation. Most of the bioactive polysaccharides are non-digestible like the dietary fibres and can reach the large intestine to be metabolised by bacteria in the gut microbiota, so that the various health benefits of bioactive polysaccharides may be associated with their “prebiotic” functions in the gut microbiota. This presentation will give a brief review on the health benefits of bioactive polysaccharides associated with the gut microbiota and then a summary of the results and findings from our recent studies on the prebiotic functions and anti-inflammatory activities of exopolysaccharides (EPS) produced by a medicinal fungus Cordyceps sinensis Cs-HK1.
