The yield, based on weight of the l

The yield, based on weight of the lyophilized crude water-soluble polysaccharide, was about 3.08%. Figure 1 showed that polysaccharide fractions had no absorption at 260 and 280 nm in the UV spectrum, suggesting the absence of nucleic acid and protein. The total carbohydrate content and uronic acid analyses found that crude extract GLP was an acidic polysaccharide containing 89% of total carbohydrate and 11% of uronic acid. The molecular weight composition of the polysaccharide is as follows: 10–30 kDa, 32.1%; 30–50 kDa, 21.8%; and >50 kDa, 46.1%. The polysaccharide consists of arabinose, galactose, cellose and glucose in the molar ratios of 11:3:1:3. IR spectra of GLP are depicted in Figure 2. The obvious polysaccharide at 3402 cm−1 was due to O–H stretching vibration. The spectrum also showed an intense vibration and a water-related absorbance at 1633 cm−1. The peak-height at 1458 cm−1 was attributed to C–H bending vibration.