| Asterina pectinifera, belonging to the family Echinodermata, Asteroidea, Spinusola and Asterinidae, is a kind of marine invertebrate. It lives mainly in the Huanghai Sea, Bohai Sea and Changshan islands. Asterina pectinifera is reported to have many good characteristics according to the traditional theories and is widely used in the treatment of gastric ulcer, strumous, diarrhea, tympanitis, epilepsy and other diseases. As the dominant species in Echinodermata, Asterina pectinifera is widely distributed along the Huanghai Sea and Bohai Sea especially in Jiaodong peninsula and is valuable marine biological resource. But the full application of Asterina pectinifera was once ignored as it was considered useless or even poisonous animal because of its threat to sea water breeding and toxicity to human if mis-eaten. To make full use of Asterina pectinifera in medicine and food, the extraction and purification of active fractions such as asterosaponins, polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA), acidic mucopolysaccharides and nutritional components from Asterina pectinifera were systemically and fully investigated in our study.The results indicate that total asterosaponin extracted from Asterina pectinifera in Huanghai Sea is straw yellow with slight mucosity. Its solution in water will generate perennial foam and minimum amount can induce hemolysis in rabbit blood. The total asterosaponin is soluble in water,methanol,ethanol and n-butanol, but insoluble in benzene, aether, acetone and other organic chemicals. Its melting point is 242-255℃.The distribution of asterosaponin in tested tissues is different with stomach being the highest and pyloric sac, body wall and gonad coming after in turn. According to the hemolysis index(H.I.), the hemolysis activity in different tissues is pyloric sac > stomach > body wall > gonad. Stomach is the main resource for asterosaponinpreparation.Asterosaponin can be further separated and purified by macrohole resin chromatography, silica gel column chromatography and sephadex column chromatography to efficiently get purified asterosaponin. The final product is white powder and its content is >60%. Based on the UV, IR and NMR spectra, the component of asterosaponin is proved to be steroidal saponins. The separation and structure confirmation need further research.The results of function evaluation of asterosaponin from Asterina pectinifera show that it has many biological and medical properties such as removing the phlegm, anti-inflammation, anticancer and protection against cerebral ischemia injuries. Studies on respiration system of animal indicate that asterosaponin from Asterina pectinifera can increase phenol red secretion in trachea in mice and prolong the delitescence of cough and asthma. Inflammation induced by acetic acid, dimethylbenzene, fresh egg white and pneumonia were all inhibited by asterosaponin. Asterosaponin from Asterina pectinifera can remarkably inhibit proliferation of many types of tumor cells such as liver cancer, stomach cancer, prostate cancer, colonic cancer and others. Asterosaponin also shows protective effects against ischemic injury in cerebral by inhibiting Ca2+ overload, inhibiting lipid peroxidation, maintenance of structure and function of mitochondria membrane, and melioration of energy metabolism in cerebral.Oil is successfully extracted from Asterina pectinifera and refined using solvent extraction and silica gel column chromatography with yields of 1.64%. The gas chromatography analysis shows that PUFA content in the refined oil exceeded 40%. Among these, the EPA+DHA content exceeded 20%, higher than that of control deep-sea fish oil (17.3%). Besides, there are other abundant PUFA in Asterina pectinifera oil such as C183 C22:5- Asterina pectinifera promises to be good source for extraction of PUFA, especially EPA and DHA.Acidic mucopolysaccharides of Asterina pectinifera can be effectively extracted with alkali and the gross product with snuff color and good solubility was got. De-color of the powder product with hydrogen peroxide and de-protein with Sevag method was used to further purify the mucopolysaccharides. Then the solution was precipitated withethanol to get mucopolysaccharide fractions I .II ,111 and IV. The saccharide content in fractions I -IV is 20.6 %, 20.7%, 29.2% and 19.9% and protein content in fractions I -IV is 29.2%, 27.8%, 59.5% and 65.7% respectively. Fraction I is proved to be acidic mucopolysaccharide with sulfate group, aldoses and without ketones. Its average molecular weight is about lOkD consists of three components. The other three fractions need further study.The nutritional factors in gonad of Asterina pectinifera were also analyzed. The data indicates that gonad is rich in protein (43.25%), fats (14.22%) and mineral elements. Among the total amino acids, the necessary amino acids take up 36.24%.In conclusion, the Asterina pectinifera in Huanghai Sea is a favorable source of many bioactive substances such as asterosaponins, acidic mucopolysaccharides, and PUFA which can be separated and purified with modern biochemical technologies. Function evaluations show that they have biological and medical properties in many aspects. Asterina pectinifera promise to be potential marine biological resource for further application and has a potential value in exploitation and utilization. |
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