Extraction, purification and characterization of a new Water-soluble polysaccharide from Acanthophyllum bracteatum roots

Recently there has been an increase in the demand of polysaccharides. Polysaccharides from plants have the advantage over those from animals because of their friendly image towards consumers. A lot of work has been done to study the chemical composition and functionality of polysaccharides. However, there is still place in the polysaccharide market for new sources of plant polysaccharides. Acanthophyllum C. A. Meyer is a genus belongs to the Caryophyllaceae family, with a total of 61 species in the world. Of these 33 occur in Iran of which 23 species are endemic. The highest number of species has been recorded in east of Iran (Khorrasan province) and in the adjacent area i.e., Turkmenistan and Afghanistan. We have examined the Water-soluble polysaccharide from the roots of Acanthophyllum bracteatum (one of the most important species from this genus). The polysaccharide extracted in different conditions (alkaline and acid) and the alkaline extraction yield (14%) was higher than the acid extraction yield (9%). The polysaccharide preparation had a specific optical rotation of 170◦, moisture content of 8.3% and ash content of 0.6%. After purification and acid Hydrolysis the carbohydrate composition was analyzed by HPLC that revealed the presence of galactose, glucose and arabinose in a ratio of 19.66, 8.66 and 1.00, respectively and negligible amounts of rhamnose and galacturonic acid. The results indicated that the polysaccharide of the roots was of the arabinoglucogalactan type. This is the first report on isolation of a polysaccharide from Acanthophyllum bracteatum.