Screening of a functional polysaccharide from Zizyphus Jujuba cv. Jinsixiaozao and its property

Chinese jujube has been used as a kind of Chinese medicinal herb for a long time. In this paper, the polysaccharides from Zizyphus Jujuba cv. Jinsixiaozao (ZSP), one of the major Chinese jujube varieties, were extracted and purified sequentially so that its water-soluble immunobiological fractions were screened. The crude ZSP was found to dramatically increase thymus and spleen indices in mice, enhance the proliferation of splenocytes and peritoneal macrophages, and have potential anti-complementary activity. Immunobiological tests indicated that two fractions of ZSP, coded ZSP3c and ZSP4b, were the main active components. ZSP3c was rich in pectin with a degree of esterification (DE) of 49%, which may be related to its stronger immunological activity.