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ARS Home » Southeast Area » Oxford, Mississippi » Natural Products Utilization Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #405207
Research Project: Biobased Pesticide Discovery and Product Optimization and Enhancement from Medicinal and Aromatic Crops

Location: Natural Products Utilization Research

Title: Rapid preparation and proton NMR fingerprinting of polysaccharides from Radix Astragali

Author
item CAO, LIANG - Hunan University Of Chinese Medicine
item ZHAO, JIANPING - University Of Mississippi
item Wang, Mei
item KHAN, IKHLAS - University Of Mississippi
item LI, XING-CONG - University Of Mississippi

Submitted to: Carbohydrate Research
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 1/30/2024
Publication Date: 2/1/2024
Citation: Cao, L., Zhao, J., Wang, M., Khan, I. A., & Li, X.-C. (2024). Rapid preparation and proton NMR fingerprinting of polysaccharides from Radix Astragali. Carbohydrate Research, 536, 109053. doi:10.1016/j.carres.2024.109053
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.carres.2024.109053

Interpretive Summary: Polysaccharides from medicinal plants are an important class of macromolecules with diverse biological activities. The difficulties and challenges in determining purity, structure, and bioavailability of such polysaccharides highlight the need of new methods to advance the science in this regard. This study aims to develop an ultrafiltration-based method to rapidly prepare total and fractional polysaccharides from Radix Astragali in high yield and purity. The method involves extraction of plant material by hot water, treatment with Sevag reagent, and ultrafiltration using molecular weight cutoff concentrators, which has eliminated the precipitation procedure commonly used in the previous methods for preparation of polysaccharides. The total and each fractional polysaccharides give a characteristic 1H NMR spectrum, serving as a fingerprint to reflect its identity and chemical nature. The percentages (by weight) of fractional polysaccharides with different molecular size among the total Radix Astragali polysaccharides have been determined. This method can be utilized to qualitatively and quantitatively assess the total and fractional polysaccharides according to molecule size in a particular plant, and may also be applied to efficiently detect and screen polysaccharides in a number of medicinal plants.

Technical Abstract: The purity, content, and structure of the polysaccharides prepared from a specific medicinal plant are the fundamental basis to interpret the observed biological activities. An ultrafiltration-based method has been developed for rapid preparation of total and fractional polysaccharides from Radix Astragali in high yield and purity. This method involves extraction of plant material by hot water, treatment with Sevag reagent, and ultrafiltration using molecular weight cutoff concentrators. The prepared polysaccharides were assessed by 1H NMR spectroscopy, providing general purity, fingerprinting, and structural information. This method may be used to efficiently detect and screen polysaccharides in plants.