Comparison of the polysaccharides isolated from skin juice, gel juice and flower of Aloe arborescens tissues

Crude water-soluble polysaccharides were isolated from gel juice, skin juice and flowers of Aloe arborescens by ethanol precipitation, Sevag deproteinization. Result indicates that skin juice contained 2.4 times the level of polysaccharides than gel juice from one plant, suggesting the potential industrial application of A. arborescens skin rather than discarded. After anion-exchange chromatography, neutral polysaccharides accounted for 59.1% and 79.8% of the total recovered neutral and acidic polysaccharide preparations from gel juice and skin juice, respectively, whereas the crude flower polysaccharides were largely composed of weakly acidic polysaccharides (85.2%). Sugar analysis of the polysaccharides after gel permeation chromatography revealed that glucose and galactose were the most abundant monosaccharide in the neutral polysaccharides from gel juice and skin juice, respectively. The acidic polysaccharides from the two juices consisted of glucuronic acid, galactose, glucose, mannose and xylose with variable proportions. Except glucuronic acid (16.4%) in flower acidic polysaccharide, the flower neutral and acidic polysaccharides contained galactose, glucose and mannose as the main sugar components. Glucuronic acid was as the major uronic acid in all acidic polysaccharides from different tissues.