ATNICOMPLEMENTARY NEUTRAL POLYSACCHARIDES FROM LEAVES OF ARTEMISIA-PRINCEPS

The three anti-complementary neutral polysaccharides, IA-1, IB-1 and I C-1, were purified from the leaves of Artemisia princeps by anion-exch ange chromatography, gel filtration and affinity chromatography. The o rder of the anti-complementary activity was IA-1>IB-1>IC-1. The polysa ccharides appeared to be homogeneous from the results of gel filtratio n, HPLC and electrophoresis. The M,s of IA-1 IB-1 and IC-1 were estima ted to be 56 000, 16 000, and 7000, respectively, by HPLC. IA-1 consis ted mainly of arabinose (Ara), galactose (Gal) and glucose (Glc) in mo lar ratios of 1.8:1.0:0.9, whereas IB-1 and IC-1 were composed mainly of Ara, mannose (Man), Gal and Glc in molar ratios of 3.5:0.8:1.0:0.8 and 2.3:3.5:1.0:3.2, respectively. Methylation analysis, C-13 NMR and enzymic digestion suggested that IA-1 mainly contained alpha-L-(1-->3, 5)-arabinan, beta-D-(1-->6)-linked Gal and beta-D-(1-->3)-linked Glc. IB-1 also consisted mainly of alpha-L-(1-->3,5)-arabinan and beta-D-(1 -->6)-linked Gal, whereas IC-1 was composed mainly of beta-D-(1-4)-lin ked Glc and alpha- or beta-D-(1-->4)-linked Man.