Progress in the metabolic kinetics and health benefits of functional polysaccharides from plants, animals and microbes: A review

Functional polysaccharides are characterized by functional and structural biomolecules, which play a dual role, both as nutrient molecules providing energy and as signalling molecules involved in intercellular communications. There are increasing evidences showing that functional polysaccharides possess beneficial effects for treating chronic diseases, such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, etc, but its mechanism of action remains imprecision. Additionally, due to the limitations of precision detection methods and the complexity of their structures, the metabolic kinetics behaviours or bioavailability of functional polysaccharides, and the interaction between it entering the systemic circulation and target cells of action have been a conundrum faced by researcher. This review summarized the latest advances in the efficacy of functional polysaccharides in chronic diseases and their structure-activity relationship, absorption and metabolic behaviours, and specific cellular receptors so as to understand the mechanisms of their bioactivities. This review is expected to provide new insights of functional polysaccharides and paves the way for their application.