Polysaccharides from Africa: An Attractive Future for Biotechnology and Bioprocess Fields

Dear Colleagues,

Polysaccharides are highly variable and complex biomolecules whose inventory of structures is still very incomplete, since Nature still preserves unexplored biotopes. Plants, macro-, and microalgae are an integral part of the daily life of human beings regardless of culture, time, or knowledge development of a country. Widely distributed throughout the world, natural medicine is an ancestral knowledge handed down for centuries from generation to generation by those commonly referred to as “nganga” healers, shamans, or traditional healers. Also called alternative medicine, traditional medicine or complementary medicine remains associated for millennia to myths, legends, rituals, and beliefs. This Special Issue places an emphasis regarding ethnobotanic approach associated to the structural variability of poly- and oligosaccharides, with the purpose to design the new polysaccharide-based drugs and hydrocolloids of tomorrow. Overall, the philosophy is to explore the potential of plants, macro-, and microalgae from Africa as a source of polysaccharides with original structures and, secondly, to correlate these structures with biological activities and technofunctional properties, in particular to address Biotechnology and Bioprocess fields. Making your own oligo- and/or polymers (e.g., glycosaminoglycan mimetics) via enzymatic and/or chemical approaches is included in the topics. This thematic Special Issue will also be associated to the incoming POLYSAC 2021 conference, which will be held in Tunisia, within the framework of the PHC MAGHREB Hubert Curien Project (PHC) EXPLORE 2019–2021, funded by Campus France (41423UC).

Assoc. Prof. Guillaume Pierre
Assoc. Prof.  Cédric DELATTRE
Guest Editors

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