Bioactive Polysaccharides of Vegetable and Microbial Origins: An Overview

Natural products play a dominant role in the discovery of leads to develop drugs for the treatment of human diseases. In recent years, some bioactive polysaccharides isolated from natural sources have attracted much attention in the fi eld of biochemistry and pharmacology because of their biological activities as anticarcinogenic, anti-infl ammatory, immunostimulating, antioxidant agents, etc. Th e high potential for some of these compounds suggested that they could be developed as drugs. Th is chapter presents the most relevant fi ndings on the latest research concerning bioactive polysaccharides isolated from vegetables and microbial sources.