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ABSTRACT: The peduncles of Hovenia dulcis, containing abundant nutrients and having a taste like a combination of raisin, clove, cinnamon and sugar, have been consumed as fruits and used as traditional herbal medicine for a long time in China. Up to date, little information is available about the polysaccharides from peduncles of H. dulcis (HDPS) and their potential bioactivity. In this study, three purified fractions were prepared by sequential purification of crude HDPS through ion-exchange chromatography and gel-filtration chromatography. The three fractions of HDPS-1, HDPS-2 and HDPS-3 were found to be homogeneous heteropolysaccharides mainly composed of rhamnose, arabinose, galactose and galacturonic acid with an average molecular weight of 235, 70 and 53kDa, respectively. HDPS-3 was quite different from HDPS-1 and HDPS-2, as it contained much higher content of galacturonic acid (40.5%). In vitro immunostimulatory activity evaluation revealed that all the three fractions could significantly stimulate the proliferation of splenocytes and enhance phagocytosis, nitric oxide production and acid phosphatase activity of peritoneal macrophages, which suggested that HDPS had a potent immunostimulatory activity and could be explored as a potential natural immunomodulatory agent.
Food Chemistry 05/2013; 138(1):41-7. · 3.65 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: The fresh fleshy peduncles of Hovenia dulcis have been used as a food supplement and traditional herbal medicine for the treatment of liver diseases and alcoholic poisoning for more than a millennium. The objectives of the present study, therefore, were to determine the antioxidant activity of polysaccharides from the peduncles of H. dulcis (HDPS) and to evaluate its hepatoprotective effect on acute alcohol-induced liver injury in mice. HDPS, prepared by hot water extraction, ethanol precipitation and treatment of macroporous resin, was found to be non-starch polysaccharide and mainly composed of galactose, arabinose, rhamnose and galacturonic acid. In in vitro antioxidant assay, HDPS exhibited high superoxide radical scavenging activity, strong inhibition effect on lipid peroxidation and a medium ferrous ion-chelating activity. For hepatoprotective activity in vivo, the administration of HDPS significantly decreased the serum levels of alanine aminotransferase and aspartate aminotransferase, significantly decreased the liver level of malondialdehyde and remarkably restored the liver activities of superoxide dismutase and glutathione peroxidase in alcohol-induced liver injury mice. The results suggested that HDPS had a significant protective effect against acute alcohol-induced liver injury possibly via its antioxidant activity to protect biological systems against the oxidative stress.
Food and chemical toxicology: an international journal published for the British Industrial Biological Research Association 06/2012; 50(9):2964-70. · 2.99 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: Response surface methodology was employed to optimize the medium compositions for the production of mycelial polysaccharide from Pholiota dinghuensis Bi (PDP). As a result, the optimal medium for crude PDP production was determined as follows (g/L): glucose 36.0, corn flour 11.8, peptone 3.0, yeast extract 5.4, KH(2)PO(4) 1.0, and MgSO(4) 1.5. In a verification experiment, a yield of 756 ± 38 mg/L crude PDP was obtained. Furthermore, biochemical assay and histopathological analysis showed that crude PDP exerted significant hepatoprotective effect in a dose-dependent manner against carbon tetrachloride (CCl(4))-induced acute liver injury. Crude PDP prevented the increase of activities of serum alanine aminotransferase and aspartate aminotransferase, reduced the formation of malondialdehyde and enhanced the activities of superoxide dismutase and glutathione peroxidase in CCl(4)-induced hepatotoxicity in mice.
Food and chemical toxicology: an international journal published for the British Industrial Biological Research Association 05/2012; 50(8):2681-8. · 2.99 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: DNA manipulation technology is facing more challenges in the postgenomics era. More and more nanomaterials have been investigated for their potential implications in developing better gene technology. In this study, we reported the beneficial effect of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) and multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) in enhancing the specificity and total efficiency of long (14 kb) PCR. Hydroxylic and carboxylic carbon nanotubes (CNTs) had similar enhancing effects. Nanotubes could become another component for improvements in the amplification of long DNA.
BioTechniques 05/2008; 44(4):537-8, 540, 542, passim. · 2.67 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: In this study, the beneficial effect of an aqueous suspension of carbon nanopowder (CNP) in enhancing the efficiency of PCR (polymerase chain reaction) amplification was demonstrated for the first time in a repeated PCR and a long PCR system. For repeated PCR, the results showed that in the presence of a certain amount of CNP a predominant target DNA could be obtained even in the sixth round amplification, and that the high specificity is dependent on the concentration of CNP. It was also shown that the CNP significantly improved the amplification efficiency for long PCR reactions. Preliminary atomic force microscopy observation indicated that CNPr could directly bind with DNA molecule. Given that carbon nanotubes, carbon nanopowder, gold nanoparticles and some other types of nanoparticle are all capable for improving the PCR efficiency and/or binding with DNA, it is clear that there is space for PCR technology improvement in the context of some enhanced properties discovered from the introduction of nanoparticles into biological aqueous solution.
Nanotechnology 08/2007; 18(35):355706. · 3.98 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: In the present study, we investigated the extraction, purification, preliminary characterization, antioxidant and anticancer activities in vitro of polysaccharides from Cyclina sinensis (CSPS). Firstly, the optimal parameters for extraction of CSPS were obtained by using a central composite design as follows: extraction temperature, 90 °C; extraction time, 250 min; ratio of water to raw material, 29; and extraction times, two times. Then, the crude CSPS was sequentially purified by chromatography of DEAE-52 and Sephadex G-100, resulting in three purified fractions of CSPS-1, CSPS-2 and CSPS-3. We found that the composition and property of CSPS-3, having relatively higher contents of protein, uronic acid, sulfate and more complicated monosaccharide composition, were quite different from those of CSPS-1 and CSPS-2. Furthermore, we demonstrated that CSPS-3 had strong scavenging activities in vitro on superoxide radical and hydroxyl radical and strong inhibitory effect in vitro on the growth of human gastric cancer BGC-823 cells.
Carbohydrate Polymers 84(3):851-857. · 3.63 Impact Factor
