Chemical structures of water-soluble polysaccharides from Rhizoma Panacis Japonici.

Five polysaccharide samples, coded as RPS1, RPS2, RPS3, RPS4, and RPS5, were isolated stepwise from Rhizoma Panacis Japonici (RPJ) by using 0.15M NaCl aqueous solution at 25 degrees C, boiling water at 120 degrees C, 0.5M NaOH/0.01M NaBH(4) at 10 degrees C, 1.0M NaOH/0.02M NaBH(4) at 10 degrees C, and 19M HCOOH at 4 degrees C, respectively. The yields were 0.39%, 1.08%, 2.41%, 0.32%, and 0.04% for RPS1 to RPS5, respectively. The chemical structures of the polysaccharides were highly branched alpha-(1-->4)-D-glucan heteropolysaccharides and the values of degree of branch (DB) were in the range of 35-45% for RPS1 to RPS5. All of the polysaccharides were water soluble, and their solubility decreased from RPS1 to RPS5. The weight average molecular mass were 3.5 x 10(4), 1.47 x 10(5), 1.24 x 10(6), 9.26 x 10(5), and 1.36 x 10(6) for RPS1 to RPS5, respectively.