Characterisation of polysaccharides from green tea of Huangshan Maofeng with antioxidant and hepatoprotective effects

Abstract This study was to examine the hepatoprotective effects of polysaccharides from green tea of Huangshan Maofeng (HMTP) against CCl 4 -induced oxidative damage in mice. HMTP is an acidic heteropolysaccharide with galactose (35.0%, mol.%), arabinose (28.9%) and galacturonic acid (11.3%) being the main monosaccharide components. HMTP (400 and 800 mg/kg·bw) administered orally daily for 14 days before CCl 4 administration significantly reduced the impact of CCl 4 toxicity on the serum markers of liver damage, alanine aminotransferase, aspartate aminotransferase, total-cholesterol and triglycerides. This method of HMTP administration also markedly restrained hepatic lipid peroxidation formation of malondialdehyde and 15-F 2t isoprostanes, and elevated the antioxidant levels of hepatic glutathione and superoxide dismutase. These results together with liver histopathology indicated that HMTP exhibited hepatoprotection against CCl 4 -induced injury, which was found to be comparable to that of biphenyldicarboxylate. The hepatoprotective effects of HMTP may be due to both the inhibition of lipid peroxidation and the increase of antioxidant activity.