New light on Grifola frondosa polysaccharides as biological response modifiers

Grifola frondosa is a valuable fungus with high health and medicinal value, and it plays an important role in the treatment of diseases as traditional Chinese medicine. Among them, the active ingredient that plays the main function was polysaccharides. Although some work had summarized the structure, physicochemical properties and biological activities of G. frondosa polysaccharides (GFPs), it was not systematic and in-depth enough. Now, a detailed summary of GFPs with the new light is necessary to address their future aspects and application. This review provides new light and updated overview of GFPs and their derivatives on extraction methods, structural diversity and as being biological response modifiers. This work will further improve the understanding of the structural diversity, biological activities and structure-activity relationship of GFPs, and provide a reference for its further development and application. Numerous studies had focused on the extraction, structural characterization and biological activities of GFPs. However, the active mechanism of GFPs is not very clear. The elucidation of the active mechanism of GFPs is of great significance for its application in the field of biomedicine. Besides, GFPs play an important role in the regulation of a variety of physiological processes as biological response modifiers, but other potential effects still need further to be developed. • Extraction methods and purification procedure of G. frondosa polysaccharides were introduced. • Structure diversity of G. frondosa polysaccharides and their derivatives were elaborated. • G. frondosa polysaccharides as biological response modifiers had been explained in details. • The problem faced and future challenges were analyzed.