ABSTRACT
By searching and analizing the related literatures of recent years, the extraction methods, biological activites and application of yeastβ-glucan were reviewed.It is found that there are many kinds of extraction methods, including acid method, alkali method, acid-alkali method, alkali-enzymatic method, autolysis-enzyme-alkali method, induced autolysis-alkali method, microwave assisted alkali-enzyme method, autolysis-ultrasonic coupling method, enzymatic method, etc.There are lots of biological activity study report on yeast β-glucan, envolving the activities of immune, anti-tumor, anti-oxidant, anti-radiation, lowering blood lipid, and regulating intestinal flora as prebiotics, etc.Yeast β-glucan is widely used in animal breeding industry, food industry and cosmetics industry.From the review we can know that seeking efficient, fast, pollution-free yeastβ-glucan extraction methods is the hot research point, and it will have more applications in food and cosmetics industries as good biological response regulator in the future .