Abstract:In the past recent years, the use of plant water-soluble non-starch polysaccharides (NSPs) in food and pharmaceutical products has gained momentum and has become an interesting subject for further scientific investigations. The unique rheological behavior of water-soluble NSPs, being able to form low to high viscous solution with water, is useful in a variety of food products ranging from beverages to baked and frozen foods to improve texture and stabilize heterogeneous food mixes. Water-soluble NSPs are also widely used in the pharmaceutical industry as encapsulating matrix for drug delivery and as bioactive materials that provide preventative roles, such anticancer and antidiabetic. The prebiotic role of water-soluble NSPs to support the growth of microbiota in the gut and support the production of short-chain fatty acids is by far the most valuable scientific discovery of this material. In tune with the increasing demand for its use, advanced and novel extraction techniques has been explored and utilized in order to obtain higher yield, minimize cost, shorten extraction time and scale up the extraction processes. These include the use of ultrasound and microwave to extract water-soluble NSP that overcome some of the limitations of conventional extraction methods. Green deproteinization techniques, such as the use of freeze-thaw technique, as alternative to the commonly used chemical methods have been explored in order to minimize losses and the negative effect of deproteinization on the bioactivity of the extracted water-soluble NSP. The green purification methods to deproteinize water-soluble NSP will render the extracted material safer to be used in food and pharmaceutical products.
