Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a chronic inflammatory disease impairing the gastrointestinal tract, and its incidence and prevalence have been increasing over time worldwide. IBD greatly reduces peoples' quality of life and results in several life-threatening complications, including polyp, toxic colonic dilatation, intestinal perforation, gastrointestinal bleeding, and cancerization. The current therapies for IBD mainly include drugs for noncritical patients and operation for critical patients. However, continuous use of these drugs causes serious side effects and increased drug resistance, and the demand of effective and affordable drugs with minimal side effects for IBD sufferers is urgent. Natural-derived polysaccharides are becoming a research hotspot for their therapeutic effects on IBD. This study focuses on the research progress of various natural polysaccharides from plants, seaweeds, and mushrooms for the treatment of IBD during recent 20 years. Regulation of oxidative stress, inflammatory status, gut microbiota, and immune system and protection of the intestinal epithelial barrier function are the underlying mechanisms for the natural-derived polysaccharides to treat IBD. The excellent efficacy and safety of polysaccharides make them promising candidates for IBD therapy.

Background. Jinshuibao capsules (JSB) have been widely used to treat early diabetic nephropathy (DN), but the specific effects are still inconsistent. A meta‐analysis of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) was conducted to evaluate the clinical efficacy of JSB for early DN. Methods. Four international databases and four Chinese databases were searched from publication dates to March 1, 2018. The RCTs reporting the results of JSB’s specific effects were included, and comparisons were between JSB combined with Angiotensin Receptor Blockers (ARBs) as experimental intervention and ARBs as the control. Included studies’ quality was evaluated and the extracted data were analyzed with RevMan 5.3 software. Results. Twenty‐six RCTs including 2198 early DN participants were adopted in the meta‐analysis. The results showed that, compared with the ARBs alone, JSB could remarkably improve the ORR (OR = 3.84; 95% CI: 2.37~6.24; P < 0.00001) and decrease 24 h UTP (MD = −93.32; 95% CI: −128.60 ~−58.04; P < 0.00001), UAER (MD = −24.02; 95% CI: −30.93 ~−17.11; P < 0.00001), BUN (MD = −0.26; 95%: −0.44 ~−0.08; P = 0.005), Scr (MD = −9.07; 95% CI: −14.26 ~−3.88; P = 0.0006), ACR (MD = −17.55; 95% CI: −22.81 ~−12.29; P < 0.00001), Cys‐C (MD = −0.60; 95% CI: −0.88 ~−0.32; P < 0.00001), SBP (MD = −3.08; 95% CI: −4.65 ~−1.52; P = 0.0001), DBP (MD = −2.09; 95% CI: −4.00 ~−0.19; P = 0.03), and TG (MD = −0.36; 95% CI: −0.50 ~−0.21; P < 0.00001). However, it showed no significant differences in TC (MD = −0.32; 95% CI: −0.69~0.04; P = 0.08), FBG (MD = 0.04; 95% CI: −0.39~0.47; P = 0.87), HbA_1c (MD = −0.26; 95% CI: −0.59~0.06; P = 0.11), and β₂‐MG (MD = −15.61; 95% CI: −32.95~1.73; P = 0.08). Conclusions. This study indicates that JSB is an effective accessory therapeutic medicine for patients with early DN. It contributes to decreasing blood pressure and the content of triglyceride and improving the renal function of early DN patients. However, there is still a need to further verify the auxiliary therapeutic effect of JSB with more strictly designed RCTs with large sample and multiple centers in the future.