Abstract:Tremella polysaccharide, as a polysaccharide with prebiotic potential, must be digested and absorbed in the body before it can function. In this study, the digestive characteristics of Tremella polysaccharide in the three stages of oral cavity, stomach and intestine were studied by examining the changes in material composition and physicochemical properties of Tremella polysaccharide during the in vitro simulated digestion process. The study showed that after the three digestion stages, the reducing sugar contents in the polysaccharide samples at different concentrations didn’t change significantly, except for a slight increase in the 0.5%-sample; Tremella polysaccharide was mainly composed of mannose, glucose, galacturonic acid, galactose and glucuronic acid, and during the entire digestion process, they were not decomposed by digestive enzymes to generate new free monosaccharides; after different concentrations of Tremella polysaccharide were digested by gastric fluid, the molecular weight of polysaccharide was degraded in the low pH gastric digestive environment, among which, the 0.5%-sample group decreased gradually to 3.91×103 ku, 3.52×103 ku and 2.92×103 ku, respectively, after the three stages of digestion. The structural and compositional changes of the polysaccharides during the digestion process mainly depend on the changes of pH value, and have little to do with the digestive enzymes in the digestive juice. The polysaccharide solution at an appropriate concentration can maintain a more stable structural property during the digestion process due to its viscosity characteristics.
