Preparation and characteristics of pumpkin polysaccharides and their effects on abnormal glucose metabolism in diabetes mice

Oxidative stress is frequently implicated in the pathogenesis of various diseases, including diabetes mellitus resulting from uncontrolled glucose metabolism. Pumpkin polysaccharides have been shown to have a hypoglycemic effect, but their impact on abnormal glucose metabolism under oxidative stress is still unclear. We dried pumpkin flesh by far-infrared radiation, extracted and separated pumpkin polysaccharides from the dried flesh, and found that they were heteropolysaccharides primarily composed of galacturonic acid, glucose, galactose, and arabinose, with a molar ratio of 31.68:31.81:20.18:9.752. The number average (Mn) and weight average molecular weight (Mw) of pumpkin polysaccharides were 33.72 kDa and 70.88 kDa, respectively. The hemiacetal hydroxyl group forming the glycosidic bond in polysaccharides was mainly β-configuration. Additionally, we utilized streptozotocin (STZ) to induce oxidative stress and replicate an acute diabetic mouse model to study the effects of pumpkin polysaccharides on abnormal glucose metabolism. Our findings demonstrated pumpkin polysaccharides significantly reduced the levels of blood glucose, triglycerides (TG), and total cholesterol (TC) in diabetic mice (p