Two novel heteroglycan with coagulant activity from flowers of Cercis chinensis Bunge

Abstract As a widely grown flower plant, the flowers of Cercis chinensis Bunge can treat rheumatism, muscle and bone pain. In order to promote the application of C. chinensis in food and agricultural cultivation, the structure and coagulant activity of pure polysaccharides isolated from flowers were studied, which was of great significance for the further application of C. chinensis. The results showed that two homogeneous heteropolysaccharides, with average molecular weight of 17060 (CCp-1) and 8303 Da (CCp-2), were isolated and identified from C. chinensis flowers. There was little different in their physicochemical properties. GC analysis showed that CCp-1 and CCp-2 were mainly comprised of xylose, rhamnose, arabinose, mannose, glucose and galactose, but the molar ratios of monosaccharides were different. FT-IR spectra showed that CCp-1 and CCp-2 had the characteristic absorption of polysaccharides, and both had α-type and β-type glycosidic linkages. Triple helical structure and SEM analysis showed that CCp-1and CCp-2 had triple helix conformation and showed irregular porous lamellar structures. Besides, methylation and 1D/2D NMR analysis indicated that CCp-1 contained at least five linkages types, including1,5-linked-Araf, 1,2,4-linked-Rhaf, 1,6-linked-Galp, 1,4-linked-Xylp and 1,6-linked-Glcp. CCp-1 and CCp-2 could significantly shorten APTT, PT and TT to show procoagulant effect, which were related to activating the endogenous and exogenous coagulation pathways and thrombin activity. These results provided promising data indicating that the two polysaccharides isolated from C. chinensis flowers were effective coagulants.