Isolation And Property Study On The Polysaccharide Of Herba Asari

Herba Asari isdry root and entire grass of Asarum heterotropoides Fr. Var. Mandshuricum Kitag. Asarum sieboldii Mig. Var.seoulense Nakai. and Asarum sieboldii Mig, which are plants of Aristolochiaceae. The first two kinds were called " Liaoning ASARI". Herba Asari, perennial plants, is a herb commonly used in China which was listed in"Shennong's Herbal"as high-grade. It has widespread pharmacological functions, such as to allay fever, ease pain, make heart strong, expand blood vessel, cause immunity suppression, cure inflammation, counter epiphyte, resist caducity and so on.In this research work, the polysaccharides in Asarum heterotropoides Fr.Schmidt var.mandshuricum (Maxim.) Kitag. produced in Tonghua area was isolated. The dry root was boiled with hot water, after concentrating the extraction was precipitated with alcohol. The precipitated polysaccharides were obtained by centrifugation and the oligosaccharides in supernant was collected after freeze-dry. Using phenol–sulfuric acid method to analyze the total sugar contents, the results showed the crude polysaccharides and oligosaccharides from Herba Asari contain 88.00% and 49.70% of carbohydrates, respectively. Using anthrone method the total sugar contents of crude polysaccharides and crude oligosaccharides in Herba Asari, assaying results are 89.20% and 51.90%. Using inter-xenol method to assay the uronic acid, there is no uronic acid in the crude oligosaccharide in Herba Asari and 17.40% of uronic acids in crude polysaccharide. Using the iodum-kalium iodidum method, the amylum contents in the crude polysaccharide was analyzed, being 24.10%. Using improved Folin-phenol method and Coomassie brilliant blue method to measure protein content, the results indicated that the polysaccharides contain 0.23% and 0.9% of proteins, respectively, there is no protein in the crude oligosaccharide.The molecular weigh of the crude polysaccharide in Herba Asari ranges extensively on Sepharose CL-6B, uronic acid appearing from void volume to bulk volume. After acid hydrolysis suing sulfuric acid (1mol/L), the HPLC analysis showed the composition of the crude polysaccharide is mainly Glc, GalUA, Ara, Gal, Xyl, Rha, Man, and GlcUA,the molar ratio is : 67.6:15.3:7.21:3.84:3.75:1.20:0.57:0.53, which means the polysaccharides are acidic heteropolysaccharide. The HPLC analysis results showed the crude oligosaccharides in Herba Asari contain Glc, Gal and Man.