Naringenin-loaded Flammulina velutipes chitin-glucan complexes gel system: structural modulation and dual lipid-lowering mechanisms

This study developed a synergistic lipid-lowering system using chitin-glucan complex (CGC) from Flammulina velutipes through green preparation and structural optimization. Enzyme-alkali treated CGC3 exhibited superior acetylation (47.85 %), crystallinity (42.29 %), and molecular weight (1.848 × 10 6  Da) through partial glucan removal. The derived hydrogel (gel-CGC3) had a dense porous network (density 2.92 ± 0.09 × 10 −3  g/cm 3 ), excellent mechanical stability, and regular pore structure. Ball milling prolonged naringenin (NAR) release to 900 min (87.5 % longer than block hydrogels) without compromising structural integrity. Meanwhile, the microgel conferred multiple functional advantages to the system (includes CGC gel and NAR loaded), and its porous structuring (powder-to-hydrogel transition) and structural refinement ( via microgel conversion) maximized binding site exposure, enhancing adsorption efficiency for cholesterol micelles (12.42 ± 0.73 mg/g), sodium taurocholate (3.91 ± 0.07 mg/g), and sodium glycopyrrolate (3.51 ± 0.07 mg/g) by exposing more binding sites. The system synergistically combines lipid adsorption and biometabolism, underscoring the significance of structure-function synergy in polysaccharide-based platforms for metabolic disorder intervention.