Jujube fruit was well-loved and praised by the broad masses due to its delicious taste, abundant nutritional value, and medicinal properties. Few studies reported the quality evaluation and gut microbiota regulation effect of polysaccharides of jujube fruits from different producing areas. In the present study, multi-level fingerprint profiling, including polysaccharides, oligosaccharides, and monosaccharides, was established for the quality evaluation of polysaccharides from jujube fruits. For polysaccharides, the total content in jujube fruits ranged from 1.31% to 2.22%, and the molecular weight distribution (MWD) ranged from 1.14 × 105 to 1.73 × 106 Da. The MWD fingerprint profiling of polysaccharides from eight producing areas was similar, but the profile of infrared spectroscopy (IR) showed differentiation. The characteristic signals were screened and used to establish a discrimination model for the identification of jujube fruits from different areas, and the accuracy of identification reached 100.00%. For oligosaccharides, the main components were galacturonic acid polymers (DP, 2-4), and the profile of oligosaccharides exhibited high similarity. The monosaccharides, GalA, Glc, and Ara, were the primary monosaccharides. Although the fingerprint of monosaccharides was semblable, the composing proportion of monosaccharides revealed significant differences. In addition, the polysaccharides of jujube fruits could regulate the gut microbiota composition and possess potential therapeutic effects on dysentery and nervous system diseases.
Keywords: fingerprint; gut microbiota regulation; jujube fruit; polysaccharides.