A review on peach gum polysaccharide: Hydrolysis, structure, properties and applications

To achieve sustainable development, increasing attention has been paid to the utilization of renewable polysaccharides extracted from plant gum instead of synthetic materials. Peach gum polysaccharide (PGP) is a typical polysaccharide, which can be readily obtained by hydrolysis of peach gum, one of the abundant plant gums in the world. In the past decade, the research on the hydrolysis, structure, properties and applications of PGP has aroused great interest. The PGP with highly branched macromolecular structure shows remarkable merits of numerous functional groups, excellent water solubility, good biocompatibility, favorable emulsifying property, fine antioxidant and antibacterial activity, and low cost. The application of PGP has expanded from the pharmaceutical field to the fields of food, adsorbents, functional carbon materials, binders and gel materials. This review systematically introduces the research progress of PGP, as well as the opportunities and challenges faced by PGP in scientific research and practical application.