journal article·2025-10-15Open access

Enzymatic Hydrolysis of Polysaccharide from Houttuynia cordata and Structure Characterization of the Degradation Products and Their α-Glucosidase Inhibitory Activity

Lanlan Zhang, Zhixuan Yang, Yanan Yuan, Mohammed Mansour, Ting Wu, Siyi Pan, Xiaoyun Xu

Applied Sciences· Volume 15· Issue 20

Abstract

This study aimed to enhance the α-glucosidase inhibitory activity of Houttuynia cordata polysaccharide (HCP) and investigate the structure of derivatives. Under optimal conditions (amylase derived from Aspergillus oryzae loading of 15 U/mL, 60 °C, and pH 6.1), the enzymatic hydrolysates of HCP (EHCP) demonstrated significantly higher α-glucosidase inhibition than non-enzymatically treated HCP (NEHCP). At a 6 mg/mL concentration, the α-glucosidase inhibition rates of EHCP and NEHCP were 77.32% and 52.92%, respectively. Molecular weight analysis revealed that EHCP was a homogeneous polysaccharide of 338.7 kDa, lower than that of NEHCP (504.6 kDa). The monosaccharide composition was Galacturonic acid/Glucuronic acid/Galactose/Rhamnose/Mannose/Fucose/Xylose/Arabinose/Glucose = 77.42:3.78:8.04:2.12:3.16:2.48:0.75:0.17:2.08 molar ratio. Infrared and nuclear magnetic resonance analyses confirmed pyranose rings and both α- and β-glycosidic linkages. Compared with NEHCP, EHCP demonstrated improved solubility, decreased crystallinity, and morphological changes from dense rod-like to loose flaky structures.
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Research context

OpenAlex topics: Nephrotoxicity and Medicinal Plants

SciVX discovery tags are terminology-based. OpenAlex topics are source-provided classifications.

Affiliations

Key Laboratory of Environment Correlative Dietology (Ministry of Education), Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, China

Hubei Key Laboratory of Fruit & Vegetable Processing & Quality Control, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, China

College of Food Science and Technology, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, China

Funding

the Key Research and Development Program of Hubei Province “Green Manufacturing Technologies for Plant-Derived Functional Food Ingredients” · the Innovation Team Project of Hubei Province “Agricultural Products Processing and Comprehensive Utilization” Team · the Key Research and Development Program of Hubei Province

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