Composition analysis and anti-hypoxia activity of polysaccharide from Brassica rapa L.

Crude water-soluble polysaccharides (BRP) were extracted from the root of Brassica rapa L. using boiling-water. The polysaccharides were successively purified by chromatography on DEAE-cellulose and Sephadex G-100 column, giving three major polysaccharide fractions termed BRP1-1, BRP2-1, BRP3-1. The gel permeation chromatography (GPC) analysis showed that the average molecular weight (Mw) of polysaccharides (BRP1-1, BRP2-1, BRP3-1) were approximately 5.53 × 103 Da, 3.35 × 104 Da and 3.37 × 104 Da, respectively. Monosaccharide components analysis indicated that BRP1-1 was composed of arabinose and glucose in a molar ratio of 1.66:98.34. BRP2-1 was composed of arabinose, galactose and glucose in a molar ratio of 9.3:14.63:76.07. BRP3-1 was composed of arabinose, rhamnose, galactose and glucose in a molar ratio of 24.98:24.10:44.09:6.83. The evaluation of anti-hypoxia activity in vivo revealed that BRP is a novel potential anti-hypoxia agent.