Processing, Utilization and In-Depth Development of Medicinal Food Homology

A special issue of Foods (ISSN 2304-8158). This special issue belongs to the section "Food Nutrition".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 10 November 2026 | Viewed by 1147

Special Issue Editor

Institute of Food Science and Technology, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Key Laboratory of Agro-Products Processing, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Beijing 100193, China
Interests: food-drug homologous; polysaccharides; functional foods; bioactive compounds; phytochemicals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Medicinal food homology (MFH) bridges traditional wisdom and modern science by advancing ingredients that serve both nutritional and health-promoting purposes. This Special Issue of Foods focuses on the processing, utilization, and in-depth development of MFH resources, focusing on methods to enhance the bioactive components of these foods. Detailed development strategies to harness the synergistic effects of these foods through innovative product formulations and functional food research will be proposed.

We kindly invite you to submit original review/research articles with novel ideas/concepts related to this topic to this Special Issue of Foods.

Dr. Jing Sun
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • medicinal food homology
  • functional foods
  • polysaccharides
  • gut microbiota
  • bioaccessibility
  • bioavailability
  • nutraceuticals

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

19 pages, 5247 KB  
Article
Structural Characterization, Constipation-Relieving, and Hypolipidemic Activity of Polysaccharides from Fresh and Processed Dendrobium officinale
by Tingting Ding, Qingquan Ma, Xin Xu, Caiyue Chen, Ya Song, Xiang Zou, Shuqi Gao, Tingting Zhang, Fengzhong Wang, Jing Sun and Bei Fan
Foods 2026, 15(4), 727; https://doi.org/10.3390/foods15040727 - 15 Feb 2026
Viewed by 691
Abstract
Dendrobium officinale (DO) is a traditional medicinal and edible plant whose polysaccharides help modulate gastrointestinal and metabolic functions. Fresh DO is commonly processed into “Fengdou” to prolong shelf life, but the effects of this processing on polysaccharide structure and bioactivity remain unclear. In [...] Read more.
Dendrobium officinale (DO) is a traditional medicinal and edible plant whose polysaccharides help modulate gastrointestinal and metabolic functions. Fresh DO is commonly processed into “Fengdou” to prolong shelf life, but the effects of this processing on polysaccharide structure and bioactivity remain unclear. In this study, polysaccharides from fresh DO (FDOP) and Fengdou (DDOP) were isolated, purified, and comparatively characterized. Based on structural analyses, FDOP and DDOP have similar functional groups and O-acetylated pyranosyl structures in both polysaccharides, which are identified as mannose–glucose heteropolysaccharides. However, FDOP was characterized by a higher mannose-to-glucose ratio (79.77:19.57) and molecular weight (187.1 kDa), as well as a more structurally diversified →4-linked backbone. In contrast, DDOP contained more glucose (68.74:30.94) and exhibited a lower molecular weight (125.1 kDa) and simplified backbone. In zebrafish models, both polysaccharides were found to alleviate loperamide-induced constipation and reduce lipid accumulation. DDOP showed stronger constipation-relieving activity, whereas FDOP exerted more pronounced hypolipidaemic effects, which can be ascribed to the higher molecular weight, mannose enrichment, and more complex backbone structure. These findings provide a structural basis and theoretical support for developing DO-derived polysaccharides as functional food ingredients targeting constipation and dyslipidaemia. Full article
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