Structural features and antioxidant activities of polysaccharides from different parts of Codonopsis pilosula var. modesta (Nannf.) L. T. Shen

Li-Xia Li; Meng-Si Chen; Zi-Yu Zhang; Berit Smestad Paulsen; Frode Rise; Chao Huang; Bin Feng; Xing-Fu Chen; Ren-Yong Jia; Chun-Bang Ding; Shi-Ling Feng; Yang-Ping Li; Yu-Long Chen; Zhen Huang; Xing-Hong Zhao; Zhong-Qiong Yin; Yuan-Feng Zou

doi:10.3389/fphar.2022.937581

Structural features and antioxidant activities of polysaccharides from different parts of Codonopsis pilosula var. modesta (Nannf.) L. T. Shen

Front Pharmacol. 2022 Aug 24:13:937581. doi: 10.3389/fphar.2022.937581. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Li-Xia Li^{1

2}, Meng-Si Chen¹, Zi-Yu Zhang¹, Berit Smestad Paulsen³, Frode Rise⁴, Chao Huang², Bin Feng⁵, Xing-Fu Chen⁶, Ren-Yong Jia², Chun-Bang Ding⁷, Shi-Ling Feng⁷, Yang-Ping Li⁸, Yu-Long Chen⁹, Zhen Huang⁹, Xing-Hong Zhao¹, Zhong-Qiong Yin¹, Yuan-Feng Zou¹

Affiliations

¹ Natural Medicine Research Center, College of Veterinary Medicine, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu, China.
² Key Laboratory of Animal Disease and Human Health of Sichuan Province, College of Veterinary Medicine, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu, China.
³ School of Pharmacy, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway.
⁴ Department of Chemistry, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway.
⁵ Animal Nutrition Institute, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu, China.
⁶ Key Laboratory of Crop Ecophysiology and Farming System in Southwest China, Ministry of Agriculture, College of Agronomy, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu, China.
⁷ College of Life Science, Sichuan Agricultural University, Ya'an, China.
⁸ Institute of Ecological Agriculture, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu, China.
⁹ Sichuan Academy of Forestry, Ecology Restoration and Conservation on Forestry and Wetland Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, Chengdu, China.

Abstract

In this study, three acidic polysaccharides from different plant parts of Codonopsis pilosula var. Modesta (Nannf.) L. T. Shen were obtained by ion exchange chromatography and gel filtration chromatography, and the yields of these three polysaccharides were different. According to the preliminary experimental results, the antioxidant activities of the polysaccharides from rhizomes and fibrous roots (CLFP-1) were poor, and was thus not studied further. Due to this the structural features of polysaccharides from roots (CLRP-1) and aerial parts (CLSP-1) were the object for this study and were structurally characterized, and their antioxidant activities were evaluated. As revealed by the results, the molecular weight of CLRP-1and CLSP-1 were 15.9 kDa and 26.4 kDa, respectively. The monosaccharide composition of CLRP-1 was Ara, Rha, Fuc, Xyl, Man, Gal, GlcA, GalA in a ratio of 3.8: 8.4: 1.0: 0.8: 2.4: 7.4: 7.5: 2.0: 66.7, and Ara, Rha, Gal, GalA in a ratio of 5.8: 8.9: 8.0: 77.0 in for CLSP-1. The results of structural elucidation indicated that both CLRP-1 and CLSP-1 were pectic polysaccharides, mainly composed of 1, 4-linked galacturonic acid with long homogalacturonan regions. Arabinogalactan type I and arabinogalactan type II were presented as side chains. The antioxidant assay in IPEC-J2 cells showed that both CLRP-1 and CLSP-1 promoted cell viability and antioxidant activity, which significantly increase the level of total antioxidant capacity and the activity of superoxide dismutase, catalase, and decrease the content of malondialdehyde. Moreover, CLRP-1 and CLSP-1 also showed powerful antioxidant abilities in Caenorhabditis elegans and might regulate the nuclear localization of DAF-16 transcription factor, induced antioxidant enzymes activities, and further reduced reactive oxygen species and malondialdehyde contents to increase the antioxidant ability of Caenorhabditis elegans. Thus, these finding suggest that CLRP-1 and CLSP-1 could be used as potential antioxidants.

Keywords: Caenorhabditis elegans; Codonopsis pilosula; antioxidant activity; polysaccharides; structural elucidation.