Radix Codonopsis , the root of Codonopsis pilosula (Franch) Nannf, C. pilosula Nannf. var. modesta (Nannf. ) L. T. Shen, and C. tangshen Oliv, is a traditional herbal medicine in Asian countries, with various pharmacological effects, such as heart protection, lowering blood pressure, anti-ulcer, etc [1]. It was used as the replacement of ginseng because of the similar pharmacological activities. Polysaccharide is one of the major contributors to the biological activity. In our group, we aimed to find out different bioactive polysaccharides from three species of radix Codonopsis. C. pilosula from Gansu province, C. pilosula Nannf. var. modesta (Nannf. ) L. T. Shen from Sichuan and C. tangshen from Guizhou province, were collected and the polysaccharides were hereby obtained. Three crude polysaccharide fractions and more than 20 purified polysaccharide fractions were obtained from those three species using anion exchange chromatography and gel filtration. The structural elucidation of some of the polysaccharide fractions were finished and the results indicated both neutral fractions and acidic fractions are present in all three species. The crude polysaccharides showed activity in regulating intestinal flora and immunity. Complement fixating activity, antioxidant activity, prebiotics activity [2] and immunomodulating activity in intestinal epithelial cells were performed in all purified polysaccharide fractions obtained. The results from biological tests indicated that polysaccharides from different species of Codonopsis showed different activity. The further study aimed structure-activity relationship analysis would be performed.
Reference:
[1] Zou YF , Chen XF, Malterud KE, et al. Carbohydr Polym 2014; 113: 420-429.
[2] Fu YP, Li LX, Zhang BZ, et al. Carbohydr Polym 2018; 193: 212-220 .