K. Ohtani et al., CHARACTERIZATION OF AN ACIDIC POLYSACCHARIDE ISOLATED FROM THE LEAVESOF CORCHORUS-OLITORIUS (MOROHEIYA), Bioscience, biotechnology, and biochemistry, 59(3), 1995, pp. 378-381
An acidic polysaccharide was isolated from the water-soluble mucilage
extracted from dried leaves of Corchorus olitorius, known as Moroheiya
in Japan (3.0 g per 100 g). This polysaccharide showed a single peak
in a Sepharose CL-6B column, and the specific rotation in H2O at 25 de
grees C was +250 degrees. The polysaccharide was rich in uronic acid (
65%), and consisted of rhamnose, glucose, galacturonic acid, and glucu
ronic acid in a molar ratio of 1.0:0.2:0.2:0.9:1.7, in addition to 3.7
% of the acetyl group. A methylation analysis, Smith degradation study
and fragmentation analysis suggested that this polysaccharide mainly
consisted of O-4 substituted galacturonic acid and glucuronic acid, an
d O-2 substituted rhamnose residues, and that most of the (1-->4)-link
ed uronic acid residues were substituted at the O-3 position with gluc
uronic acid residues. This polysaccharide showed proliferative activit
y toward the murine splenocyte.