Abstract
Two polysaccharides (ESP-A1 and ESP-A2) were isolated from the cold water extract of Ephedra sinica Stapf and purified through ethanol precipitation, deproteinization and by ion exchange and gel-filtration chromatography. Their molecular weight was determined using high performance size exclusion chromatog-raphy and evaporative light scattering detector (HPSEC-ELSD) and their monosaccharide composition was analyzed by high performance capillary electrophoresis (HPCE) based on pre-column derivatization with 1-phenyl-3-methyl-5-pyrazolone (PMP). It was shown that ESP-A1 consisted of xylose, arabinose, glucose, mannose and galactose and ESP-A2 consisted of xylose, arabinose, rhamnose and galactose, in a molar ratio (%) of 3.2: 61.1: 11.1: 12.9: 11.6 and 20.6: 67.7: 5.0: 6.7, respectively. The molecular weights (Mw) of ESP-A1 and ESP-A2 were 5.83 × 104 Da and more than 200 × 104 Da, respectively. To the best of our knowledge, two neutral polysaccharides are now being reported for the first time in this study.
Highlights
Ephedrae herba is the dried stem of Ephedra sinica Stapf, E. intermedia Schrenk et C
Mey. and E. equisetina Bge., which belongs to the Ephedraceae family [1]. It is a crude drug widely used in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) for thousands of years for its medicinal qualities as a diaphoretic, diuretic, anti-asthmatic to treat allergies, asthma, pneumonia, bronchitis, hay fever and colds [2,3]. It is well-known that a series of ephedrine alkaloids have for a long time been considered as the pharmacologically active ingredients of E. sinica for treatment of various diseases and symptoms [4], but they cannot account for all the effects mentioned above and the water-soluble polysaccharides are demonstrated to be one of the main bioactive constituents of E. sinica
It was shown that ESP-A1 consisted of xylose, arabinose, glucose, mannose and galactose and ESP-A2 consisted of xylose, arabinose, rhamnose and galactose, in a molar ratio of 3.2: 61.1: 11.1: 12.9: 11.6 and 20.6: 67.7: 5.0: 6.7, respectively
Summary
Ephedrae herba is the dried stem of Ephedra sinica Stapf, E. intermedia Schrenk et C. Mey. and E. equisetina Bge., which belongs to the Ephedraceae family [1] It is a crude drug widely used in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) for thousands of years for its medicinal qualities as a diaphoretic, diuretic, anti-asthmatic to treat allergies, asthma, pneumonia, bronchitis, hay fever and colds [2,3]. It is well-known that a series of ephedrine alkaloids have for a long time been considered as the pharmacologically active ingredients of E. sinica for treatment of various diseases and symptoms [4], but they cannot account for all the effects mentioned above and the water-soluble polysaccharides are demonstrated to be one of the main bioactive constituents of E. sinica. We extracted, isolated and purified the polysaccharide components from the stems of E. sinica and determined their molecular weight as well as their monosaccharide composition so as to further investigate its mechanism of action
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