Oviasose: A Novel Oligosaccharide from the Milk of Gaddi Sheep (Ovis aries)

Abstract

Oligosaccharides are the most biologically diverse and important carbohydrate among biological system, present as natural constituents in fruits, vegetables, milk, blood, bacteria fungus etc. Oligosaccharides present in milk protect infants by reducing the number of pathogen infections and promoting the development of the intestinal epithelium. Oligosaccharides isolated from sheep milk strongly stimulate the immune system and are used for treatment of immune system related disorders. Keeping above mentioned biological activities of Gaddi sheep’s (Gaddi is a breed of sheep found at higher altitude of Himalayan region) milk oligosaccharides in mind we have isolated a novel oligosaccharide namely Oviasose from sheep’s milk and elucidated its structure by chemical degradation & spectroscopic techniques (like 1H NMR, 13C NMR, COSY, TOCSY, HSQC and HMBC) and Mass Spectrometry. The structure of Oviasose was established by comparing the chemical shift (1H NMR and 13C NMR) of anomeric signals and other important signals of isolated milk oligosaccharide with the chemical shifts of known milk oligosaccharides, 2D-NMR and mass of Oviasose. Keywords: Sheep milk, Oligosaccharides, NMR, Oviasose.