A study on oligosaccharides (carbohydrate polymers that contain three to ten simple sugars) in lotus seeds, conducted by researchers from the University of Macau (UM), was recently featured in the internationally renowned journal Electrophoresis. The Wall of Great Wisdom, a gift to UM from the Ministry of Education, and a stamp of UM were used in the design of this issue’s cover. This is the first time that the sculpture and UM’s stamp have appeared in a journal’s cover. The cover design shows an aesthetically appealing mix of the symbol of UM’s liberal arts education and the symbol of Macao --- lotus, which nicely echoes the subject matter of the research study, the medicinal benefits of lotus seeds.

Electrophoresis is a scientific journal published by the renowned academic publisher Wiley that covers advanced technologies and latest research findings. Titled ‘Preparation, Identification of Oligosaccharides in Lotus Seeds and Determination of Their Distribution in Different Parts of Lotus’, the paper is first-authored by Chen Lingxiao, a PhD student of biomedical sciences from UM. Chen’s supervisors are Prof Zhao Jing and Prof Li Shaoping from the State Key Laboratory of Quality Research in Chinese Medicine.

This study separated raffinose family oligosaccharides (RFOs) from lotus seeds, and examined the amounts of RFOs in different parts of a lotus, including its seeds, leaves, stalks, plumules, and roots. The study found that lotus seeds are rich in RFOs, a kind of functional oligosaccharides with probiotic activities of gut microbiome. The research study was sponsored by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the Science and Technology Development Fund of Macao SAR, and UM.