Component and antioxidant properties of polysaccharide fractions isolated from angelica sinensis (OLIV.) DIELS

An analytical method of high performance capillary electrophoresis (HPCE) was developed to simultaneously separate and identify the component monosaccharides of Angelica sinensis polysaccharide fractions (APFs), named APF1, APF2 and APF3. The predominant sugars in APFs were identified as arabinose, glucose, rhamnose, galactose and galacturonic acid as well as trace amount of mannose and glucuronic acid, and the fractionation altered significantly the distribution of component monosaccharides in APFs. APF3 was the most active fraction to effectively inhibit H2O2-caused decrease of cell viability, lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) leakage and malondialdehyde (MDA) formation, and also reduced H2O2-caused decline of superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity and glutathione (GSH) depletion (p<0.05), followed by APF2 and APF1 in decreasing order. Furthermore, it was found that APFs (100,mu g/ml) could protect macrophages by inhibiting the release of excess NO and reactive oxygen species (ROS) induced by high concentrations of H2O2 (0.8-1.6 mM).