Abstract Curdlan have been investigated for a long time. This β (1 → 3)-glucan has distinctive thermal gel-forming character and is edible, which was approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to be used in food industry. However, curdlan has poor solubility which limit its use and therefore, many researchers concentrate on curdlan modification and as a consequence diverse curdlan derivatives have been prepared. The initial modification purpose was to increase the solubility in water, while with further study, biological activities such as anti-cancer, anti-coagulation, anti-virus and immune-regulation were discovered. Thus curdlan and its derivatives have increasingly wide uses in different areas. In order to give a more comprehensive understanding for curdlan and its derivatives, we summarized recent advances of curdlan and its derivatives, as well as the existing problems need to be solved.

中文翻译：

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凝胶多糖及其衍生物的制备、生物活性及应用研究进展

摘要 Curdlan 被研究了很长时间。这种 β (1 → 3)-葡聚糖具有独特的热凝胶形成特性，可食用，已被美国食品药品监督管理局 (FDA) 批准用于食品工业。然而，凝胶多糖溶解性差，限制了其使用，因此，许多研究人员专注于凝胶多糖的改性，因此制备了多种凝胶多糖衍生物。最初的改性目的是增加在水中的溶解度，随着进一步研究，发现了抗癌、抗凝血、抗病毒和免疫调节等生物活性。因此，凝胶多糖及其衍生物在不同领域有越来越广泛的用途。为了更全面地了解curdlan及其衍生物，