Background: Sea cucumber is a seafood of high nutritional value. During
its processing, sea cucumber processing liquor is routinely produced,
which is usually discarded as waste. The chemical composition of this
processing liquor is similar to sea cucumbers themselves. Hence,
valuable ingredients, such as functional polysaccharides, could be
obtained from them. Results: Biologically active polysaccharides from
sea cucumber processing liquor were extracted through protease
hydrolysis and electroosmosis. The analysis revealed that the
polysaccharide extract from sea cucumber processing liquor (PESCPL) is
predominantly composed of mannose, in addition to some glucose and
fucose. The antioxidant activity of PESCPL was analyzed using in vitro.
It was demonstrated that PESCPL could effectively scavenge
1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl radicals, hydroxyl radicals, and
superoxide anion radicals. The effect of PESCPL was investigated in
vivo by using mice model fed with high-fat diets with/without PESCPL
supplement. It was shown that PESCPL could increase the catalase and
superoxide dismutase activity in the serum and decrease serum
malonaldehyde content. Furthermore, mice fed with PESCPL diet showed a
considerable decrease in the serum cholesterol and triglyceride levels
and an increase in high-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels.
Conclusions: Our research highlights that PESCPL is a natural
antioxidant and could be utilized as a therapeutic supplement for
dyslipidemia