Nature-inspired oligosaccharides: plant and algal routes to human milk functionality

Jan 5, 2026Critical reviews in food science and nutrition

Plant- and seaweed-based sugars that mimic the benefits of human milk

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Abstract

Human milk oligosaccharides (HMO) are crucial for early-life health by influencing various biological functions.

HMOs guide the development of the gut microbiome and strengthen the mucosal barrier.
They enhance immune responses by increasing secretory IgA at mucosal surfaces and blocking pathogen attachment.
Plant and marine algal-derived oligosaccharides may serve as affordable alternatives to HMOs, providing similar biological functions.
These alternative oligosaccharides can support beneficial gut bacteria and produce essential metabolites.
They may also inhibit pathogen adhesion and modulate immune responses through various mechanisms.
While not identical to HMOs, these compounds show promise in delivering health benefits akin to those of HMOs.

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Human milk oligosaccharides (HMO) shape early-life health by guiding microbiome assembly, fortifying the mucosal barrier, calibrating immune responses by enhancing secretory IgA at mucosal surfaces, blocking pathogen adhesion, and influencing the microbiota-gut-brain axis. Direct deployment of structurally diverse HMO at population scale remains constrained by manufacturing complexity and cost. This review examines "nature-inspired" oligosaccharides derived from plant and marine algal as affordable, scalable HMO mimetics, mapping chemistry to biology across five functional domains: microbiota architecture & metabolism, inhibition of pathogen adhesion via glycan decoy mechanisms, immune education, mucosal barrier enhancement and gut-brain regulation. We synthesize and critically appraise evidence on plant-derived fructo-, xylo-, and mannan-oligosaccharides, as well as on red-algal agaro-oligosaccharides and brown-algal fuco-oligosaccharides. Although these glycans do not fully replicate individual HMO structures, they can exhibit convergent mechanisms: selective fueling of saccharolytic consortia to produce functional metabolites (SCFAs), multivalent fucose-rich decoying of viral/bacterial adhesins, dendritic-cell/T- and B-cell tuning, epithelial junction and mucus programs, and neuroactive/metabolite signaling along the gut-brain axis. Framed as functional mimicry rather than strict structural emulation, plant and marine oligosaccharides emerge as promising "glycobiotics" to deliver HMO-like benefits across the lifespan, with opportunities for precision, personalized, and sustainable formulations guided by multi-omics and glycoinformatics.

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Nature-inspired oligosaccharides: plant and algal routes to human milk functionality

Abstract

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