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Updated: Jun 25, 2026
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Published on: August 2, 2024
[Studies on anticoagulant constituents in dried Whitmania pigra]
Shan Zhong1, De-po Yang, Zheng Cui
1School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510080, China. lizhongshan100@yahoo.com.cn
Objective:
To study the anticoagulant constituents in dried leech (Whitmania pigra Whitman).
Method:
The plasma recalcification time (PRT) as index, the constituents with anticoagulant activity were isolated and purified by anion-exchange chromatography on Sephadex DEAE A-50, gel permeation chromatography on Sephadex G-25 and Sephadex LH-20 columns, and then reversed phase high-performance liquid chromatography successively.
Result:
Three anticoagulant polypeptides were isolated and purified. Compounds 1 and 2 can be translated each other in natural conditions, and their molecular weights are 7100 and 5531, respectively. Compound 3 was identified as a pure polypeptide by HPLC and SDS-PAGE, and its molecular weight was determined as 8 608 by MALDI-TOF-MS. The amino acid composition of compound 3 was also determined.
Conclusion:
Compound 3 was inferred to be a novel anticoagulant, and named whitmanin.
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