Polysaccharides from Aconitum carmichaelii leaves: Structure, immunomodulatory and anti-inflammatory activities

Roots of Aconitum carmichaelii are used in Asian countries due to its content of bioactive alkaloids. In the production of root preparations, tons of leaves are usually discarded, leading to a huge waste of herbal material. The aim of this study is to investigate the polysaccharides in these unutilized leaves. A neutral polysaccharide (AL-N) appeared to be a mixture of hetemmannans, and two purified acidic polysaccharides (AL-I-I and AL-I-II) were shown to be pectins containing a homogalacturonan backbone substituted with terminal beta-Xylp-units. AL-I-I consisted of a type-I rhamnogalactumnan core, with arabinan and type-II arabinogalactan domains while AL-I-II was less branched. AL-N and AL-I-I were able to modulate the complement system, while AL-I-II was inactive. Interestingly, AL-N, AL-I-I and AL-I-II were shown to exert anti-inflammatory effects on porcine entemcyte IPEC-J2 cells. AL-I-I and AL-I-II were able to down-regulate the expression of toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) and nucleotide-binding oligomerization domain 1 (NOD1).