Recent developments in non-starch Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam. polysaccharides: extractions and purifications, structural characteristics, pharmacological activities, structure-activity relationships, and applications A review.

Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam. (I. batatas) is highly regarded by consumers and researchers in medicine and food due to their high yield and rich nutritional value. Due to the difficulty in applying starch polysaccharides from I. batatas in drug development, non-starch polysaccharides with rich pharmacological activity have become a research hotspot in recent years. Non-starch I. batatas polysaccharide has been proven to contain a variety of pharmacological activities, including immune regulation, improvement of intestinal microbiota, gastric protection, liver protection, anti-tumor, anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidant, anti-glycosylation, and anti-diabetes. At the same time, in addition to traditional extraction methods, researchers have also utilized various new extraction methods such as isoelectric point precipitation, hot reflux extraction, and ultra-high pressure extraction to obtain non-starch I. batatas polysaccharides with various conformational features, including cyclic and chain structures. Its rich pharmacological activities and diverse chemical structures provide clear guidance for elucidating of its structure-activity relationships and developing products in fields such as medicine and food. Based on this, this article reviews the research progress on the extraction and purification methods, structural characteristics, pharmacological activities, structure-activity relationships, and applications of non-starch I. batatas polysaccharides in recent years, providing theoretical guidance for future research on non-starch I. batatas polysaccharides.