Isolation and partial characterization of biologically active polysaccharides from Plantago major L.

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Abstract
Polysaccharide fractions were isolated from Plantago Major L. leaves by extraction with cold water, hot water and with dimethylsulphoxide (DMSO). Each of the three crude extracts obtained was further separated by ionexchange chromatography. Only the two acidic fractions from the 50°C crude extract were biologically active, demonstrated by in vitro testing of activation of the complement system and induction of tumour necrosis factor alpha (TNF‐α) production from human monocytes. One of the fractions, PM I50, contains polysaccharide material comprising arabinose, galactose and xylose with smaller proportions of galacturonic acid, glucose, mannose and rhamnose. This fraction was further fractionated by size exclusion chromatography to give three fractions PM Ia, PM Ib and PM Ic. PM Ia is probably an arabinogalactan and PM Ib is mainly a 1,4‐linked xylan. The other biologically active fraction, PM II50 is composed of 75% galacturonic acid, 3% rhamnose, 6% arabinose and 8% galactose. Structure analysis indicates that PM II50 is a pectin type polysaccharide.