Cold plasma modification of natural polysaccharides: mechanisms, regulatory factors, and biological activity...

The structural and functional modification of natural polysaccharides is a key research area in the food and pharmaceutical sectors. However, traditional modification techniques suffer from limitations such as low efficiency and significant pollution. As the demand for efficient and environmentally friendly polysaccharide modification methods grows, cold plasma, an emerging, eco-friendly, and non-thermal treatment technology, offers a highly promising strategy for altering the structural and functional properties of polysaccharides. This review provides an in-depth overview of the latest advances in the cold plasma modification of natural polysaccharides. It elucidates the generation methods, mechanisms, and regulatory factors of this technology, while analyzing its effects on the structure, physicochemical properties, and biological activities of polysaccharides, such as antioxidant, antidiabetic, and immunomodulatory effects. The application of plasma-activated water is also introduced, and the challenges associated with industrialization and future directions are discussed. This review provides theoretical support for the high-value utilization of polysaccharides.