Critical Problems Stalling Progress in Natural Bioactive Polysaccharide Research and Development.

Natural polysaccharides are attracting increasing attention from food and pharmaceutical industries for their wide range of valuable biological activities. However, the poor repeatability of the methods used in sample preparation and chemical characterization is hampering both research and product development. The unstandardized quality, in turn, undermines efforts to understand the mechanism by which they work via oral dose, which is essential to realize the full beneficial potential of polysaccharides. Some scientists believe polysaccharides work by direct gut absorption; however, increasing evidence points to the gut microbiome and intestinal Peyer's patches as holding the keys to how they work.