Polysaccharides

Polysaccharides are long-chain polymers formed by more than 10-monosaccharide molecules joined together by a glycoside bond. They are widely distributed in natural resources, including plants, animals, fungi, bacteria, and algae (= natural polysaccharides (NPs)), often used as prebiotics
Li et al. 2022m Foods 11: 1084

Their structure ranges from linear to highly branched.
Li et al. 2021u Front. Pharmacol. 12:651813

Based on compositional monosaccharides, they can also be classified into homopolysaccharides and heteropolysaccharides
Yadav & Karthikeyan 2019 In Polysaccharide Carriers for Drug Delivery. Maiti, S., Jana, S., Eds. Woodhead Publishing: Cambridge, UK, pp. 1-17

Polysaccharides are among the essential biological macromolecular substances required to maintain the everyday activities of organisms
Ji et al. 2019a Int. J. Biol. Macromol. 135: 637-646

They can directly promote or inhibit the growth of specific microorganisms in the gut microbiota and function as sources for energy extraction. Inhibition of specific microorganisms in the gut microbiota by polysaccharides may also result in antimicrobial activity
Cowan 1999 Clin. Microbiol. Rev. 12: 564-582
Korem et al. 2015 Science 349: 1101-1106
Zmora et al. 2019 Nat Rev Gastroenterology & Hepatology 16: 35

Polysaccharides are a kind of carbohydrate with high molecular weight, which represent a major class of bioactive molecules derived from microorganisms, animals, or plants
Li et al. 2018c Int. J. Biol. Macromol. 111: 894-902

see also:
Butyrate / Butyric acid & Dietary fibers (DF)
Glycans
Glycans & Glycosyltransferases
Heteropolysaccharides
Homopolysaccharides
Lipopolysaccharides (LPS)