Isolation and purification of flower polysaccharide from aloe ferrox and its composition analysis

Crude flower polysaccharides from aloe ferrox Miller were isolated by a series of sequential steps including precipitation with ethanol,removal of protein by sevag method,dehydration by several organic solvents.Flower polysaccharide obtained after DEAE Sephadex A-25 anion-exchange chromatography consists of neutral polysaccharides and acidic polysaccharides,largely composed of weakly acidic polysaccharides(around 87%).The polysaccharides were further purified and their molecular weights were measured by Sepharose 4B gel permeation chromatography.Neutral sugar analysis was performed by gas liquid chromatography(GLC).In particularly,the neutral polysaccharide obtained from aloe ferrox flower was shown to contain about 20% of mannose,while a trace of mannose was detected in aloe ferrox leaf.