title: Extraction, purification, characterization and antioxidant activities of polysaccharides fromRamaria botrytis(Pers.) Ricken.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Ramaria botrytis(Pers.) Ricken, a member of the family Clavariaceae, has been widely prescribed for anti-aging and improving immunity. To extract and purify the polysaccharides, the main constituent of the fruiting-body, fromR. botrytisand explore antioxidant activities was great significant.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Ramaria botrytispolysaccharides (RBP) was extracted with water at 88.47 °C for 1.42 h with a solution to sample ratio of 10.94 mL g-1employing response surface methodology. Four purified fractions, RBP-1, RBP-2, RBP-3, and RBP-4, were obtained from column chromatography of DEAE-52 and Sephadex G-100. Among these four purified fractions, RBP-1, RBP-2, RBP-4 were mainly composed of glucose, while RBP-3 contained 41.36% mannose and 28.96% glucose. The molecular weights of RBP-1, RBP-2, RBP-3 and RBP-4 were 6.48, 36.12, 96.72 and 8.34 kDa, respectively. These four fractions are also tested for antioxidant activities in vitro, RBP-4 exhibited strong assay of reducing power and high scavenging activity on DPPH radical, while RBP-3 showed the stronger ability of hydroxyl radical scavenging activity.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Response surface methodology was successfully applied to optimize the ultrasonic extraction of polysaccharides fromR. botrytis. RBP is an efficient natural antioxidant.
authors.affiliation: College of Food Science and Technology, Henan University of Technology, Zhengzhou, 450001 China.
authors.forename: Hua
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Li
keywords: Antioxidant activities; Polysaccharides; Purification; Ramaria botrytis