Impacts of superfine grinding on structural characteristics and lipid‐lowering effect of bitter melon polysaccharides

Summary In this study, the effects of superfine grinding on the structural and physicochemical properties of bitter melon polysaccharides (BPS) were investigated, and Caenorhabditis elegans model was used to evaluate fat‐lowering bioactivities of BPS. Results illustrated that superfine grinding resulted in high extraction of BPSs yielding with altered microstructure, different monosaccharide compositions and molecular weights. In addition, improved water/oil‐holding capacity, solubility and swelling capacity of polysaccharides were observed following superfine grinding. Furthermore, C. elegans study revealed that BPSs exhibited strong inhibitory effects on lipid accumulation, especially BPS‐25 (extracted from bitter melon treated with superfine grinding) reducing the triglyceride content from 9.49 to 1.85 mg g −1 .prot. Mechanistic study showed that the lipid‐lowering effects of BPSs largely dependent on the insulin signalling pathway, fatty acid oxidation or lipolysis pathways. In all, our study underscore that superfine grinding can effectively improve the lipid‐lowing effects of bitter melon polysaccharides.