Antioxidant Activities of Natural Polysaccharides and Their Derivatives for Biomedical and Medicinal Applications
Lu Bai,
Dong Xu,
Yan-Ming Zhou,
Yong-Bo Zhang,
Han Zhang,
Yi-Bing Chen,
Yuan-Lu Cui
Affiliations
Lu Bai
State Key Laboratory of Component-Based Chinese Medicine, Research Center of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Tianjin 301617, China
Dong Xu
State Key Laboratory of Component-Based Chinese Medicine, Research Center of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Tianjin 301617, China
Yan-Ming Zhou
State Key Laboratory of Component-Based Chinese Medicine, Research Center of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Tianjin 301617, China
Yong-Bo Zhang
State Key Laboratory of Component-Based Chinese Medicine, Research Center of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Tianjin 301617, China
Han Zhang
State Key Laboratory of Component-Based Chinese Medicine, Research Center of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Tianjin 301617, China
Yi-Bing Chen
Medical Experiment Center, First Teaching Hospital of Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Tianjin 300381, China
Yuan-Lu Cui
State Key Laboratory of Component-Based Chinese Medicine, Research Center of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Tianjin 301617, China
Many chronic diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases are closely related to in vivo oxidative stress caused by excessive reactive oxygen species (ROS). Natural polysaccharides, as a kind of biomacromolecule with good biocompatibility, have been widely used in biomedical and medicinal applications due to their superior antioxidant properties. In this review, scientometric analysis of the highly cited papers in the Web of Science (WOS) database finds that antioxidant activity is the most widely studied and popular among pharmacological effects of natural polysaccharides. The antioxidant mechanisms of natural polysaccharides mainly contain the regulation of signal transduction pathways, the activation of enzymes, and the scavenging of free radicals. We continuously discuss the antioxidant activities of natural polysaccharides and their derivatives. At the same time, we summarize their applications in the field of pharmaceutics/drug delivery, tissue engineering, and antimicrobial food additives/packaging materials. Overall, this review provides up-to-date information for the further development and application of natural polysaccharides with antioxidant activities.
