Purification, chemical characterization and radical scavenging activities of alkali-extracted polysaccharide fractions isolated from the fruit bodies of Tricholoma matsutake

Tricholoma matsutake, a high-class edible mushroom in China, has been regarded as famous foods and biopharmaceutical materials with a great deal of interest. In the previous investigations, researchers believe the water-soluble polysaccharide beta-glucan is the major active component of T. matsutake, which displays various biological activities. In the present study, two novel alkali-extracted polysaccharide fractions, TM-APS-1 and TM-APS-2, were isolated from the fruit bodies of T. matsutake by DEAE-cellulose and Sepharose CL-6B columns on ATKA explorer chromatography system. Their chemical and physical characteristics and radical scavenging capacity were valuated, including chemical methods, GC, HPLC, scavenging activity against DPPH radicals, superoxide radicals, hydroxyl radicals, and chelating ability. The results showed that TM-APS-1 and TM-APS-2 exhibited significantly antioxidant activity at a concentration-dependent manner. The alkali-extracted polysaccharide fractions from T. matsutake can be developed to be novel functional food or pharmaceutical products with antioxidant effects.