The multidimensional characteristics of pectin make it a potential candidate for use in food and biomedical science.We report rheological characterisation of hydrogels formed by highly substituted brush-like arabinoxylans from Plantago ovata seed mucilage. Two arabinoxlyan fractions with similar molecular weight and linkage compositions are chosen to form gels with distinct rheological properties but a similar network structure. Small and large amplitude oscillatory shear rheology is used to characterise the sol-gel transition as a function of temperature and concentration. Differences in rheology and gelation of the two hydrogels are found to be associated with the different proportion of 'slow'- and 'fast'-dissociating junctions stabilised by hydrogen bonds, with the 'fast'-dissociating junctions playing an important role in rapid self-healing of the gel. Based on the temperature dependence of storage modulus and time-temperature superposition principle in combination with the Arrhenius equation, the activation energies of junction zone dissociation are estimated to be 402-480 kJ/mol and 97-144 kJ/mol for the 'slow' and 'fast' junction types, respectively.Developing sustainable, renewable, hydrophobic, and biodegradable packaging material to replace petroleum-based plastic products remains a challenge. Herein, original cellulose/myristic acid composite films were fabricated by solvent-vaporized controllable crystallization of natural myristic acid on anisotropic cellulose films. The myristic acid crystals that evenly distributed on the surface of cellulose film generated micronano binary structure and the interstitial space between microplates, resulting in high hydrophobicity (water contact angle = 132°) and excellent self-cleaning property of the composite film. The resultant film exhibited good tensile strength and toughness under both dry (188.7 MPa, 34.4 MJ m-3) and humid conditions (119.9 MPa, 28.7 MJ m-3). Moreover, these composite films could be degraded completely after approximately 102 days in soil with an average environment temperature of 32 °C. This work provided a low-cost and sustainable pathway for the fabrication of high-strength, self-cleaning, and waterproof packaging materials instead of plastics.Pectin nanofiber mats prepared with periodate oxidation-electrospinning-adipic acid dihydrazide crosslinking strategy are promising for biomedical applications. In this study, we systematically examined the effects of electrospinning and crosslinking conditions on the properties of pectin nanofiber mats. The properties of mats were tunable in the range of 200-400 nm fiber size, 11-21% ADH residue content, 13-28 times absorbency, 13°-21° contact angle, 2 weeks or longer degradation time, 1.5-2.2 MPa tensile strength, 40-70% elongation, and 0.25-0.27 g/(cm2·24 h) permeability. Increasing polymer concentration, adipic acid dihydrazide amount, time or temperature could increase fiber size and its tensile strength, and decrease the absorbency, hydrophilicity, degradation rate, and elongation. These results indicate that controlling the process parameters can effectively regulate the properties of pectin nanofiber mats and meet the requirements of various biomedical applications.Hyaluronan (HA) has been widely used as a dietary supplement which can be degraded by gut microbiota. However, the interactions between HA and gut microbiota have not been fully characterized. Here, using an in vitro system, we found that HA is readily fermented by human gut microbiota but with differing fermentative activities among individuals. HA-fermentation boosted Bacteroides spp., Bifidobacterium spp., Dialister spp., Faecalibacterium spp. and produced a significant amount of acetate, propionate and butyrate.  https://www.selleckchem.com/products/acy-775.html  Fermentation products profiling indicated that HA could be degraded into unsaturated even-numbered and saturated odd-numbered oligosaccharides. Further, polysaccharide lyases (PLs) and glycoside hydrolases (GHs) including GH88, PL8, PL29, PL35 and PL33 were identified from B. ovatus E3, which can help to explain the structure of the fermentation products. Collectively, our study sheds new light into the metabolism of HA and forms the basis for understanding the bioavailability of HA from a gut microbiota perspective.Highly-stretchable self-standing curdlan (1,3-β-d-glucan) hydrogels were prepared via chemical cross-linking using various cross-linkers, including ethylene glycol diglycidyl ether, 1,4-butandiol diglycidyl ether, and 1,6-hexanediol diglycidyl ether. Tensile testing of the curdlan hydrogels revealed that the hydrogels had good elongation properties with 600%-900% elongation strain from their original length regardless of the cross-linker length. Stretched-dried-gel films were prepared by stretching of the hydrogels and subsequent drying. The tensile strength and Young's modulus of the stretched-dried-gel-films were 117-148 MPa and 1.6 GPa, respectively, and these values were markedly improved compared with the non-stretched films. X-ray measurements revealed that the stretched dried-gel films had oriented crystalline domains with an 80% of degree of orientation. These results indicate that the curdlan molecular chains were oriented and crystallized during the process of stretching and drying of the hydrogels. As a result, the stretched-dried-films showed a high tensile strength owing to strain-induced crystallization.Low mechanical strength and untargeted osteoinduction of chitosan hydrogel limit its application for bone regeneration. This study aimed to develop an injectable chitosan hydrogel with enhanced mechanical strength and improved osteoinductivity for bone tissue engineering. For this purpose, chitosan-modified halloysite nanotubes (mHNTs) were synthesized first. Then, icariin as a bone inducer was loaded into mHNTs (IC@mHNTs), resulting in a sustained drug release system. Further, nanocomposite chitosan/mHNTs hydrogels were prepared by the sol-gel transition, leading to decreased gelation time and temperature and enhanced mechanical strength of the resulting scaffolds. The mesenchymal stem cells were encapsulated into the hydrogels, and in vitro viability assays showed scaffold biocompatibility. Moreover, embedded mHNTs or IC@mHNTs in the scaffold resulted in enhanced proliferation and bone differentiation of encapsulated cells. It was collectively demonstrated that the injectable in situ forming nanocomposite chitosan hydrogel loaded with IC@mHNTs is a promising candidate for bone regeneration.