Structural characteristics of polysaccharide from Zingiber striolatum and its effects on gut microbiota composition in obese mice
Wei Jiang, Ying Hu, Zhen‐Yuan Zhu
Abstract
To investigate a polysaccharide from Zingiber striolatum favorably modulates gut microbiota in mice fed a high-fat diet. Z. striolatum was utilized to extract the crude polysaccharide CZSP, which was subsequently refined using DEAE-52 cellulose and Sephadex G-150 to yield the novel polysaccharide Zingiber strioatum pure polysaccharide-1 (ZSPP-1). ZSPP-1 was an acidic heteroglycan made up of galactose, mannose, glucose, xylose, arabinose, glucuronic acid, and galacturonic acid with an average molecular weight of 1.57 × 10 6 Da. The structure of ZSPP-1 was investigated by FT-IR, methylation and NMR analysis, and the results denoted that the linkage structure types include T-Man p -linked, β-Xyl p -(1,2)-linked, β-Gal p -(1,4)-linked, α-Glc p A-(1,6)-linked, β-Ara p -(1,4)-linked, α-Glc p -(1,3,4,6)-linked, α-Glc p -(1,2)-linked, and β-T-Xyl p -linked, in which β-Gal p -(1,4)-linked and α-Gal p A-(1,4)-linked might be the main linkage. The results of the intervention experiments showed that ZSPP-1 changed the intestinal flora structure of the Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes in obese mice, and promoted the growth of beneficial bacteria such as Akkermansia , Lactobacillus , and Bacteroides in the intestine. It also restored the imbalanced flora structure due to high-fat diet to normal. It also restored the imbalanced flora structure due to high-fat diet to normal. Z. striolatum polysaccharides presented a considerable advantage in alleviating high-fat diet induced obesity, which indicates that it can be further exploited as a natural functional food resource.