Jing-Juan Yang, Xi Zhang, Jin-Feng Dai, Ya-Ge Ma, Jian-Guo Jiang,

Effect of fermentation modification on the physicochemical characteristics and

anti-aging related activities of Polygonatum kingianum polysaccharides,
International Journal of Biological Macromolecules,
Volume 235,
2023,
123661,
ISSN 0141-8130,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2023.123661.
(https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0141813023005548)
Abstract: In order to fully investigate the anti-aging value of the plants
polysaccharides, the fermentation method was applied to modify the Polygonatum
kingianum polysaccharides (PKPS), and the ultra-filtration was used to further
segment the hydrolyzed polysaccharides. It was found that the fermentation induced
an increase in the in vitro anti-aging-related activities of PKPS including
antioxidant, hypoglycemic and hypolipidemic activity, and cellular aging-delaying
ability. In particular, the low Mw fraction PS2-4 (10-50 kDa) separated from the
fermented polysaccharide exhibited superior anti-aging activity on experimental
animals. PS2-4 extended the Caenorhabditis elegans lifespan by 20.70 %, with an
increased effect of 10.09 % compared to the original polysaccharide; it was also
more effective than the original one in improving movement ability and reducing
lipofuscin accumulation of worms. This fraction was screened as the optimal anti-
aging active polysaccharide. After fermentation, the main molecular weight
distribution of PKPS changed from 50–650 kDa to 2–100 kDa, and the chemical
composition and monosaccharide composition also changed; the initial rough and
porous microtopography turned into smooth state. These alterations in
physicochemical characteristics suggest that fermentation exerted an influence on
the structure of PKPS, which contributed to the enhanced anti-aging activity,
indicating that fermentation was promising in the structural modification of
polysaccharides.
Keywords: Polygonatum kingianum polysaccharides; Anti-aging; Fermentation;
Structural modification