Extraction, purification, bioactivities and prospect of lentinan: A review

Abstract It is known that there are many benefits associated with the development and utilization of natural products, such as abundant resources, biocompatible, biodegradability and renewability. The resources of bioactive substances in animals and plants are very huge, including sugars, lipids, protein peptides, sterols, alkaloids, glycosides, volatile oils etc., which can cause various biological effects after interacting with the body. Among them, active polysaccharides can stimulate immune activity, enhance the reticuloendothelial system phagocytosis of tumor cells, activate cells, and promote the formation of antibodies. Lentinan is the main effective component of Lentinus edodes, which is a kind of active polysaccharides with high molecular weight. Clinical and pharmacological studies showed that lentinan has multiple functions of antivirus, antitumor, regulating immune function and stimulating interferon formation. Since the functional characteristics of lentinan is highly related to its molecular weight, conformation and quality, the extraction and purification are of great importance to the exploitation of its excellent properties for various applications. Lentinan has a bright future in food, pharmaceutical, agriculture and cosmetics fields. This review gives an updated overview of the extraction and purification methods, structural characteristics, chemical modification, biological activity, applications and future prospect of lentinan.