Purification, characterization and antioxidant activities of polysaccharides from thinned-young apple

Purification, characterization and antioxidant activities of polysaccharides from thinned-young apple (TYA) were investigated in the study. A water-soluble polysaccharide (TYAP) was obtained with hot water extraction, which was further purified by chromatography of Cellulose DEAE-52 and Sephadex G-150 to get three purified fractions of TYAP-1, TYAP-2 and TYAP-3. HPLC analysis showed that the three fractions were mainly composed of galactose and arabinose with the average molecular weights of 115 kDa, 479 kDa and 403 kDa, respectively and the monosaccharide compositions of TYAP-2 and TYAP-3 were more complicated than that of TYAP-1. Moreover, TYAP fractions of three had no absorptions at 260 nm and 280 nm in the UV spectrum, indicating the absence of protein and nucleic acid. Their structure properties were further confirmed by FT-IR. In vitro antioxidant activities of three fractions were characterized by DPPH(•), HO(•), O2(•-) and ferric-reducing antioxidant power systems. The results indicated that TYAP-1, TYAP-2 and TYAP-3 possessed significant antioxidant effects in a concentration-dependant manner in the tested concentration range of 0.25-5.0mg/mL. Among the fractions tested, TYAP-3 showed significantly higher antioxidant activity than that of TYAP-1 and TYAP-2. All of these findings provide a scientific basis for the further use of polysaccharides from thinned-young apple.