Bioactive properties of selenium-enriched polysaccharides extracted from Pleurotus ostreatus using ultrasonic-assisted extraction

Mushrooms are well recognized as functional foods owing to their rich nutritional and medicinal properties, particularly polysaccharides with notable therapeutic potential. Managing oxidative stress, obesity, and diabetic complications through enzyme inhibition and suppression of advanced glycation end-products (AGEs) is crucial for health promotion. This study focused on selenium-enriched polysaccharides from <i>Pleurotus ostreatus</i>, produced via sodium selenite fortification. The Se-polysaccharides were extracted using optimized ultrasonic-assisted extraction (50 % ultrasonic power, liquid-solid ratio of 40 mL/g, 15 min). Selenium enrichment significantly enhanced antioxidant activities, with Se-polysaccharides showing ABTS radical-scavenging activity of 80.56 ± 0.16 μmol TE/g compared to 51.13 ± 0.79 μmol TE/g for non-enriched polysaccharides (p < 0.05). Similarly, FRAP values increased to 44.32 ± 1.26 μmol TE/g from 32.97 ± 0.27 μmol TE/g in non-enriched samples (p < 0.05). After 96 h, Se-polysaccharides achieved 69.29 % glycation inhibition, significantly higher than the 58.25 % observed in the control group (p < 0.05). Furthermore, Se-polysaccharides reduced lung cancer cell viability to 72.02 % when treated at a concentration of 0.5 mg/mL (p < 0.05). These findings demonstrate that selenium enrichment combined with UAE is an effective strategy for producing multifunctional polysaccharides from <i>P. ostreatus</i>, with promising applications in functional foods, nutraceuticals, and complementary therapies.