Aconitum kusnezoffii Reichb., one of the earliest recorded toxic species of genus Aconitum, has been used as traditional Chinese medicine and medicinal diet over the last 2500 years to treat heart failure congestion, neuralgia, rheumatism and gout, etc. In the present paper, four water-soluble polysaccharide fractions isolated from the tubers of A. kusnezoffii Reichb. were studied the antioxidant and immunological ctivities for the first time. In vitro antioxidant assays indicated that fraction WKCP-A had noticeable scavenging activities on DPPH radical, hydroxyl radical, superoxide anion, H2O2 and self-oxidation of 1,2,3-phentriol, ferrous ion-chelating ability and reducing power. Moreover, the in vivo immunological assay exhibited that fractions WKCP-A and WKHP could more significantly enhance splenic lymphocyte proliferation and macrophage phagocytosis than other fractions. Therefore, the water-soluble polysaccharides from A. kusnezoffii Reichb., especially WKCP-A, have the potential to be explored as novel natural antioxidants and immunostimulating agents for using in functional foods or medicine.
Fig. FT-IR spectra of WKCP-N and WKHP-N from Aconitum kusnezoffii Reichb.
Additional Information:
1 Author Information:Tingting Gao, Shuai Ma, Jiayin Song, Hongtao Bi, Yanduo Tao
Correspondence: E-mail:
bihongtao@hotmail.com2 Published:
International Journal of Biological Macromolecules, 49,580–586,2011
Introduction
