Acidic polysaccharides of Mountain Cultivated Ginseng: The potential source of anti-fatigue nutrients

[Display omitted] •MCGAPs is a potential anti-fatigue nutrient.•MCGAPs can eliminate the excessive accumulation of metabolites.•MCGAPs can relieve oxidative stress damage.•MCGAPs can modify the kinetics of energy substrates mobilization.•MCGAPs relieved fatigue by regulating AMPK axis signaling pathway. Ginseng is usually considered as a functional food and herbal medicine, and it has anti-fatigue activity, which is of great attention and expectation. Based on the comparison of Mountain Cultivated Ginseng (MCG) with Cultivated Ginseng (CG), this study aimed to explore the material basis and mechanism of Ginseng in anti-fatigue effects. The results showed that the Mountain Cultivated Ginseng acidic polysaccharides (MCGAPs) had obvious advantages, which significantly prolonged the fatigue tolerance time, alleviated the accumulation of BLA, LDH, BUN and MDA, increased the activities of SOD, CAT and CK, regulated glycolysis and alleviated muscle fiber contraction. It also significantly upregulated the expression of AMPK axis related proteins in mice muscle. Preliminary results exhibited the anti-fatigue effect of MCG was significantly better than CG, which was mainly due to the difference of acidic polysaccharide. The findings supported the potential of MCGAPs to be used as a functional ingredient for anti-fatigue.