A systematic review on polysaccharides from Morinda officinalis How: Advances in the preparation, structural characterization and pharmacological activities.

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE: Morinda officinalis How is called "Ba-Ji-Tian" in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), which belongs to the genus Rubiaceae and is widely used for medicinal purposes in China and other eastern Asian countries. Morinda officinalis How polysaccharides (MOPs) are one of the key bioactive components, and have a variety of biological activities, such as antioxidation, antifatigue, enhanced immunity, antiosteoporosis, ect.

AIM OF THE REVIEW: This review is aimed at providing comprehensive information of the latest preparation technologies, structural characterization, and pharmacological effects of MOPs. A more in-depth research on the structure and clinical pharmacology of the MOPs was explored. It could lay a foundation for further investigate the pharmacological activities and guide the safe clinical practice of MOPs.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: The Web of Science, PubMed, Scifinder, Google Scholar, CNKI, Wanfang database, and other online database are used to search and collect the literature on extraction and separation methods, structural characterization, and pharmacological activities of MOPs publisher from 2004 to 2023. The key words are "Morinda officinalis polysaccharides", "extraction", "isolation", "purification" and "pharmacological effects".

RESULTS: Morinda officinalis has been widely used in tonifying the kidney yang since ancient times, and is famous for one of the "Four Southern Medicines" in China for the treatment of depression, osteoporosis, rheumatoid arthritis, infertility, fatigue and Alzheimer's disease. The active ingredients of Morinda officinalis that have been researched on the treatment of depression and osteoporosis are mostly polysaccharides and oligosaccharides. The content of polysaccharides varies with different methods of extraction, separation and purification. MOPs have a wide range of pharmacological effects, including antioxidant, antifatigue, immunomodulatory, antiosteoporosis, and regulation of spermatogenesis activities. These pharmacological properties lay a foundation for the treatment of oxidative stress, osteoporosis, spermatogenic dysfunction, immunodeficiency, inflammation and other diseases with MOPs.

CONCLUSIONS: At present, MOPs have been applied in the treatment of skeletal muscle atrophy, varicocele, osteoporosis, because of its effects of enhancing immunity, improving reproduction and antioxidant. However, the structure-activity relationship of these effects are still not clear. The more deeply study could be conducted on the MOPs in the future. The toxicology and clinical pharmacology, as well as mechanism of action of MOPs were also needed to deeply studied and clarified. This paper could lay the foundation for the application and safety of MOPs in multifunctional foods and drugs.