Auricularia cornea var. Li. polysaccharide (ACP) has many important biological activities and has potential application value in food engineering, pharmaceutical science, and health care. The results were as follows: the extraction rate of ACP was 28.18% ± 1.41% and the purity of ACP was 86.92% ± 2.80%. ACP contains mannitol 32.41%, glucuronic acid 6.96%, rhamnose 0.32%, glucose 42.35%, galactose 0.77%, xylose 16.83%, and fucose 0.36%, without galacturonic acid and arabinose. In addition, the results of an animal test of diabetes mellitus II (DM II) with ACP showed that the total cholesterol (TC), triglyceride (TG), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), and fasting blood glucose and water in the serum of mice with ACP were significantly lower than those in the model group; the serum SOD, hepatic glycogen, and insulin of mice added with ACP were significantly higher than those in the model group. More importantly, ACP had no significant adverse effects on organ index and liver and kidney tissue morphology in mice. These results suggest that ACP can be used as a potential functional food component for the prevention or treatment of diabetes.

Active films based on carboxymethyl chitosan incorporated corn peptide were developed, and the effect of the concentration of corn peptide on films was evaluated. Physicochemical properties of the films, including thickness, opacity, moisture content, color, mechanical properties, water vapor permeability, and oil resistance, were measured. Biological activities of the films, including the antioxidant and antibacterial activities, were characterized in terms of 2, 2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl free radical scavenging activity, reducing power, the total antioxidant activity, and the filter disc inhibition zone method. The results indicated that the incorporation of corn peptide caused interactions between carboxymethyl chitosan and corn peptide in Maillard reaction and gave rise to the films light yellow appearance. Compared with the Control, the degree of glycosylation, browning intensity, thickness, opacity, tensile strength, antioxidant activity, and antibacterial activity of films were increased, but the elongation, vapor permeability, and oil resistance of films were decreased. The films based on corn peptide and carboxymethyl chitosan can potentially be applied to food packaging.

The effect of Auriculariacornea (AC) as an alternative for pork fat on the physico-chemical properties and sensory characteristics of cooked sausage were evaluated. The results indicated that replacement of pork fat with AC led to a significant increase in the protein, ash, moisture, cooking loss, water holding capacity, springiness, and chewiness, especially isoleucine, leucine, proline, palmitic, palmitoleic, oleic, and arachidonic acids of the sausages. In contrast, AC reduced the level of fat (12.61%–87.56%) and energy (5.76%–56.40%) of the sausages. In addition, AC led to the mild lightness, yellowness, whiteness, and soft texture, while it did not affect the water activity of the sausages. From the sensory point of view, all sausages were judged acceptable, and the substitution of 75% of pork fat by AC exhibited best sensory characteristics. In a word, AC is a promising food to partially replace the pork fat in sausages.