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Antioxidant and Immune Effects of Water Soluble Polysaccharides Isolated from Cinnamomum verum Bark

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Cinnamomum verum plant is widely used in traditional medicine to reduce inflammation. In the present study, water-soluble polysaccharides were isolated from Cinnamomum verum bark followed by sequential separation from four solvent extracts (hexane, dichloromethane, chloroform and methanol) and analysed for the presence of sugar, protein and different phytochemicals. Crude and purified ethyl acetate fractions of soluble polysaccharides were analysed in vitro using mouse leukemic macrophage (RAW 264.7) cell line and human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs). Water-soluble (crude and ethyl acetate purified fractionation) polysaccharides contained glucose, whereas proteins and phytochemicals were absent. Water-soluble polysaccharide fraction had less antioxidant activity as compared to all four solvent extracts. Also, water-soluble polysaccharides (250 μg/ml) did not affect the cell growth, while all other four extracts (250 μg/ml) inhibited the growth of RAW 264.7 cells. Cell growth inhibition was detected when concentration of crude and ethyl acetate fraction polysaccharides was increased, where IC50 values were 1120 ± 27 and 1780 ± 227 μg/mL, respectively. Interestingly, crude and ethyl acetate polysaccharides showed concentration-dependent increase of the cell growth in PBMCs, indicating immunostimulating effect. Our data suggests that the immunological properties of cinnamon may be associated with the presence of polysaccharides.
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Antioxidant and Immune Effects of Water Soluble Polysaccharides
Isolated from Cinnamomum verum Bark
Mehendi Goyal
1
&Harloveleen Kaur
1
&Maitri Bhandari
1
&Albert A. Rizvanov
2
&Svetlana F. Khaiboullina
2,3
&
Manoj Baranwal
1
Published online: 29 June 2018
#Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2018
Abstract
Cinnamomum verum plant is widely used in traditional medicine to reduce inflammation. In the present study, water-soluble
polysaccharides were isolated from Cinnamomum verum bark followed by sequential separation from four solvent extracts
(hexane, dichloromethane, chloroform and methanol) and analysed for the presence of sugar, protein and different phytochem-
icals. Crude and purified ethyl acetate fractions of soluble polysaccharides were analysed in vitro using mouse leukemic
macrophage (RAW 264.7) cell line and human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs). Water-soluble (crude and ethyl
acetate purified fractionation) polysaccharides contained glucose, whereas proteins and phytochemicals were absent. Water-
soluble polysaccharide fraction had less antioxidant activity as compared to all four solvent extracts. Also, water-soluble
polysaccharides (250 μg/ml) did not affect the cell growth, while all other four extracts (250 μg/ml) inhibited the growth of
RAW 264.7 cells. Cell growth inhibition was detected when concentration of crude and ethyl acetate fraction polysaccharides
was increased, where IC
50
values were 1120 ± 27 and 1780 ± 227 μg/mL, respectively. Interestingly, crude and ethyl acetate
polysaccharides showed concentration-dependent increase of the cell growth in PBMCs, indicating immunostimulating effect.
Our data suggests that the immunological properties of cinnamon may be associated with the presence of polysaccharides.
Keywords Polysaccharides .Peripheral blood mononuclear cells .Scavenging effect .Phytochemicals .MTT assay
1 Introduction
There is a great interest in using herbal components for treat-
ment of inflammation, immunosuppression and regenerative
therapy. Spices are non-leafy part of plants which has been
consumed for flavour and aroma since long time with no side
effect. Apart from being flavouring agents, spices are known
to possess several medicinal properties [1].
Cinnamon is one of the well-known spices originating from
Ceylon which is widely used for treating cardiovascular dis-
eases, chronic gastrointestinal and gynaecological disorders
[2]. It is an endemic plant most commonly found in the south
Asian regions such as Sri Lanka, India, China, Burma and
Indonesia [3]. There were different varieties of cinnamon such
as Cinnamomum verum,C. cassia,C. zeylanicum and C.
burmani belonging to the Lauraceae family which was one
of the oldest spices used as a medicine mentioned in the
Chinese literature since 4000 years. Cinnamon bark also
seemed to possess therapeutic properties such as anti-
bacterial [4], anti-inflammatory [5] and anti-cancer [6]. The
essential oil from the bark of cinnamon is a rich source of
mono-terpene and trans-cinnamaldehyde [7]. Nanocream pre-
pared using cinnamon leaf oil has also been developed for
tropical application [8]. Besides being a potent therapeutic,
the presence of different oils opened new applications in cos-
metics and food industry [3]. GC-MS analysis of the bark
extracts of cinnamon showed the presence of over 38 com-
pounds [9] where cinnamaldehyde, eugenol, linalool, cam-
phor and coumarin were found in major quantities.
Polysaccharides are structurally diverse macromolecules
which were originally identified in plants, bacteria, algae
and fungi. They have potent antibacterial, antiviral, anticancer
*Manoj Baranwal
manoj.baranwal@thapar.edu; baranwal.manoj@gmail.com
1
Department of Biotechnology, Thapar Institute of Engineering and
Technology, Patiala 147004, India
2
Institute of Fundamental Medicine and Biology, Kazan Federal
University, Kazan, Tatarstan, Russia 420008
3
Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of
Nevada, Reno, NV 89557, USA
BioNanoScience (2018) 8:935940
https://doi.org/10.1007/s12668-018-0542-3
Content courtesy of Springer Nature, terms of use apply. Rights reserved.
... It may be because the phenolic compounds present in the Cinnamomum species extracts might be degraded at low extraction temperature and extraction time length in a short period, and this may contribute to a lower potential of α-glucosidase inhibition. One of the phenolic compounds contributing to the antidiabetic activity is coumarin, which exists in C. verum leaf extract (Goyal et al., 2018). It is supported by the previous study by Matsumura et al. (2000) that stated the coumarin was diffused out from leaves as the temperature of water increased and bound with α-glucosidase active site to inhibit α-glucosidase in the process of glucose production and eventually reduce blood glucose level. ...
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Immunostimulatory polysaccharides are compounds capable of interacting with the immune system and enhance specific mechanisms of the host response. Glucans, mannans, pectic polysaccharides, arabinogalactans, fucoidans, galactans, hyaluronans, fructans, and xylans are polysaccharides with reported immunostimulatory activity. The structural features that have been related with such activity are the monosaccharide and glycosidic-linkage composition, conformation, molecular weight, functional groups, and branching characteristics. However, the establishment of structure-function relationships is possible only if purified and characterized polysaccharides are used and selective structural modifications performed. Aiming at contributing to the definition of the structure-function relationships necessary to design immunostimulatory polysaccharides with potential for preventive or therapeutical purposes or to be recognized as health-improving ingredients in functional foods, this review introduces basic immunological concepts required to understand the mechanisms that rule the potential claimed immunostimulatory activity of polysaccharides and critically presents a literature survey on the structural features of the polysaccharides and reported immunostimulatory activity. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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The main objectives of this study were to qualitatively evaluate the profile of phytochemical constituents present in methanolic extract of Microcos paniculata bark (BME) and fruit (FME), as well as to evaluate their anti-inflammatory, analgesic and antipyretic activities. Phytochemical constituents of BME and FME were determined by different qualitative tests such as Molisch's test, Fehling's test, alkaloid test, frothing test, FeCl3 test, alkali test, Salkowski's test and Baljet test. The anti-inflammatory, analgesic and antipyretic activities of the extracts were evaluated through proteinase-inhibitory assay, xylene-induced ear edema test, cotton pellet-induced granuloma formation in mice, formalin test, acetic acid-induced writhing test, tail immersion test and Brewer's yeast-induced pyrexia in mice. M. paniculata extracts revealed the presence of carbohydrates, alkaloids, saponins, tannins, flavonoids and triterpenoids. All of the extracts showed significant (P<0.05, vs aspirin group) proteinase-inhibitory activity, whereas the highest effect elicited by plant extracts was exhibited by the BME (75.94% proteinase inhibition activity) with a half-maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) of 61.31 μg/mL. Each extract at the doses of 200 and 400 mg/kg body weight showed significant (P<0.05, vs control) percentage inhibition of ear edema and granuloma formation. These extracts significantly (P<0.05, vs control) reduced the paw licking and abdominal writhing of mice. In addition, BME 400 mg/kg, and FME at 200 and 400 mg/kg showed significant (P<0.05, vs control) analgesic activities at 60 min in the tail immersion test. Again, the significant (P<0.05, vs control) post-treatment antipyretic activities were found by BME 200 and 400 mg/kg and FME 400 mg/kg respectively. Study results indicate that M. paniculata may provide a source of plant compounds with anti-inflammatory, analgesic and antipyretic activities.