Effects of Heat Treatment on the Structural Characteristics and Antitumor Activity of Polysaccharides from Grifola frondosa

This study investigated the effects of heat treatment on structural characteristics and in vitro antitumor activity of polysaccharides from Grifola frondosa. GFP-4 (extracted at 4 °C), GFP-4-80 (80 °C treatment on GFP-4) and GFP-80 (extracted at 80 °C) were prepared, and the chemical composition analysis showed that their total sugar contents were all higher than 90%, high-performance gel-permeation chromatography (HPGPC), ion chromatography (IC) and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) results demonstrated that GFP-4 were degraded and denatured after 80 °C heat treatment, MTT and JC-1 results showed that GFP-4 exhibited higher inhibitory effects on HepG2 cells in vitro than GFP-4-80 and GFP-80. Our study suggested that heat treatment at 80 °C on polysaccharides from Grifola frondosa would destroy their structure and attenuate their antitumor effects.