A review of isolation process, structural characteristics, and bioactivities of water-soluble polysaccharides from Dendrobium plants

Dendrobium officinale and many other Dendrobium plants have been used as herbal medicines and nutraceutical products since ancient time in China. The past three decades witnessed increasing investigation of the polysaccharides isolated from Dendrobium herbs. Bioactivities, such as immuno-modulatory, anti-tumor, anti-diabetic, and antioxidant properties, have been found for Dendrobium polysaccharides. A diversity of structures has been proposed for several polysaccharides isolated from various Dendrobium varieties. This paper reviews the isolation methods, structural elucidation, and bioactivity of Dendrobium polysaccharides.

Research highlights
► Dendrobium plants contain high level of mucilage polysaccharides which can be easily extracted by aqueous systems.
► Dendrobium polysaccharides are mostly glucomannans and some small amounts of acidic polysaccharides
► Dendrobium polysaccharides demonstrated various bioactivities by in vitro and in vivo studies