Structure characterization, chemical and enzymatic degradation, and chain conformation of an acidic polysaccharide from Lycium barbarum L.

•A purified acidic polysaccharide was obtained from fruits of Lycium barbarum L.•The structural characteristics were investigated by a combination of chemical and instrumental analysis approaches along with a degradation pattern study.•The fine primary structure and chain conformation of this polysaccharide was elucidated.

An acidic polysaccharide, named as p-LBP, was isolated from Lycium barbarum L. by water extraction and purified by decoloration, ion exchange chromatography, dialysis and gel chromatography, successively. The primary structure analysis was determined by HPAEC-PAD, HPSEC, FT-IR, GC–MS, and NMR. The results showed p-LBP was a homogeneous heteropolysaccharide as a pectin molecule with an average molecular weight of 64 kDa p-LBP was an approximately 87 nm hollow sphere in 0.05 mol/L sodium sulfate solution determined by HPSEC-MALLS, DLS and TEM. A discussion of degradation patterns gave the detailed structural information of p-LBP. Therefore, the results from degraded fragments elucidated that the backbone of p-LBP was formed by → 4-α-GalpA-(1 →, repeatedly. Partial region was connected by → 4-α-GalpA-(1 → and → 2-α-Rhap-(1 →, alternatively. On the C-4 of partial → 2-α-Rhap-(1 → residues existed branches forming by → 4-β-Galp-(1 →, → 3-β-Galp-(1 → or → 5-α-Araf-(1 →, while on the C-6 of partial → 3-β-Galp-(1 → residues existed secondary branches forming by terminal-α-Araf, terminal-β-Galp or → 3-α-Araf-(1 →.