Cistanche deserticola is a traditional and precious Chinese herbal medicine, known as “desert ginseng”, with anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidant, improving immunity, nourishing the kidneys and other pharmacological effects. Its chemical components mainly include phenylethanol glycosides, iridoids, polysaccharides and volatile components, among which polysaccharides have received extensive attention due to their biological activities such as regulating immune activity, anti-aging, anti-spleen deficiency and antitumor. In recent years, a large number of research have been carried out on the extraction and isolation, chemical structure analysis and biological activity of Cistanche deserticola polysaccharides. The methods of polysaccharide extraction mainly include traditional extraction method, ultrasonic assisted method, microwave assisted method and enzyme assisted method, etc. The extracted polysaccharides were analyzed by chemical methods including methylation, acid hydrolysis and Smith degradation and spectroscopy methods such as NMR and IR. A variety of polysaccharides with new structures were obtained, and some polysaccharides with known structures were also investigated for their biological activities and their structure-activity relationships. However, the relationship between polysaccharides structure and their biological activities is still unclear due to the large number of polysaccharide components, their complex structures and the lack of systematic research and analysis on them. It is expected that the subsequent study of polysaccharide structure and active conformational relationship will be highly valuable for the application of Cistanche deserticola in pharmaceutical sciences and health food.

肉苁蓉是一种传统名贵中草药，被誉为“沙漠人参”，具有抗炎、抗氧化、提高免疫力、补肾等药理作用。其化学成分主要包括苯乙醇甙、环烯醚萜甙、多糖和挥发性成分，其中多糖类因其具有调节免疫活性、抗衰老、抗脾虚和抗肿瘤等生物学活性而受到广泛关注。近年来，对肉苁蓉的提取分离、化学结构分析和生物活性等方面进行了大量研究多糖。多糖的提取方法主要有传统提取法、超声辅助法、微波辅助法和酶辅助法等。提取的多糖采用甲基化、酸水解、Smith降解等化学方法和NMR、IR等光谱方法进行分析。获得了多种具有新结构的多糖，并对一些已知结构的多糖进行了生物活性及其构效关系的研究。然而，由于多糖成分众多，结构复杂，缺乏系统的研究和分析，目前多糖结构与其生物活性之间的关系尚不清楚。药学与保健食品中的肉苁蓉。