Bioactive Polysaccharides

Bioactive Polysaccharides offers a comprehensive review of the structures and bioactivities of bioactive polysaccharides isolated from traditional herbs, fungi, and seaweeds. It describes and discusses specific topics based on the authors' rich experience, including extraction technologies, practical techniques required for purification and fractionation, strategies and skills for elucidating the fine structures, in-vitro and in-vivo protocols, and methodologies for evaluating the specific bioactivities, including immune-modulating activities, anti-cancer activities, anti-oxidant activities, and others. This unique book also discusses partial structure-functionality (bioactivities) relationships based on conformational studies. This comprehensive work can be used as a handbook to explore potential applications in foods, pharmaceuticals, and nutraceutical areas for commercial interests. - Serves as a comprehensive review on extraction technologies, and as a practical guide for the purification and fractionation of bioactive polysaccharides - Brings step-by-step strategies for elucidating the fine structures and molecular characterizations of bioactive polysaccharides - Includes detailed experimental design and methodologies for investigation bioactivities using both in-vitro and in-vivo protocols - Clarifies how to extract, purify, and fractionate bioactive polysaccharides, also exploring health benefits - Useful as a guide to explore the commercial potentials of bioactive polysaccharides as pharmaceuticals, medicine, and functional foods

Prof. Shaoping Nie received his Ph.D. in 2006 from Nanchang University. He is the dean of the School of Food Science and Technology and the deputy director of the State Key Laboratory of Food Science and Technology, Nanchang University. He has been long engaged in the structural analysis and physiological function research of food polysaccharides. He has obtained funding from the National Natural Science Foundation of China for the Outstanding Youth and Key International (Regional) Cooperative Research Projects and has won the second prize of the National Science and Technology Progress Award and the provincial and ministerial awards of Natural Science or Science and Technology Progress over ten times. The associated achievements have been published in journals like FEMS Microbiology Reviews, Trends in Food Science & Technology, Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, Food Hydrocolloids, and Food Chemistry. Over 30 invention patents have been authorized.