Purification, characterization and biological effect of reversing the kidney-yang deficiency of polysaccharides from semen cuscutae.

Semen cuscutae is a well-known Chinese medicine which has been used to nourish kidney. It is the first study to demonstrate that the polysaccharides from semen cuscutae showed significant activity of nourishing kidney-yang by increasing the levels of testosterone and estradiol, decreasing the level of blood urea nitrogen, improving immune function, possessing antioxidant effect. Three homogeneous polysaccharides were obtained by DEAE-cellulose and Sephacryl S-400 which were named as C-7WR1, C-7WR2 and C-7WR3 with average molecular weight of 7.59×104 , 3.23×104 and 2.25×104 respectively. C-7WR1 was composed of fructose: mannose=0.02:1. C-7WR2 was composed of fructose: mannose: xylose: arabinose=0.01:1:0.14:0.33. C-7WR3 was composed of fructose: mannose: xylose: arabinose=0.01:1:0.10:0.47. They mainly contained mannose. Their fourier transform infrared features were similar. They all had no nucleic acid and protein.