STUDIES ON THE WATER SOLUBLE POLYSACCHARIDE FROM PANAX GINSENG FRUIT ISOLATION,PURIFICATION AND STRUCTURAL STUDIES ON HETEROGLYCAN F

Polysaccharides extracted from ginseng fruit with water are a mixture of heteroglycans composed of 6 monosugars. A homogeneous heteroglycan F obtained by fractionation and purification contains Ara., Rha., Xyl., GalA., Gal., Glc., in the molar ratio of 5.9: 4.3: 0.3: 0.7: 17.4: 1.0. Its mol. wt. was shown to be about 1,900,000.The purity of F was established by ultracentrifugal, sepharose 4 B 2 B column chromatography, cellulose acetate film electrophoresis and polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis.By means of partial hydrolysis with acid or pectinase, periodate oxidation, Smith degradation, methylation analysis, GC and GC-MS, the structure of F has been identified as a highly branched polysaccharide with β-(1-3)-galactose linkages as its main chain and the side chains on the main chain at C₄ and C₆ positions.