Compositional features of carbohydrate compound from rhizoma ligustici wallichii and ethanol extract of danshen and its bioactivity

Water extraction was applied to prepare carbohydrate compound of rhizoma ligustici wallichii. Four main fractions, fraction-I, fraction-II, fraction-III, and fraction-IV, were obtained by membranes of 1.0 × 10−4 mm pore size and normal molecular-weight cut-off of 50 kDa. The resulting four preparations were further analysed by capillary gas chromatography method. Thin layer chromatography (TLC) analysis showed that carbohydrate compound of rhizoma ligustici wallichii was composed of five types of monosaccharides, namely glucose, rhamnose, mannose, galactose and arabinose. Gas chromatography (GC) analysis showed that fraction I of rhizoma ligustici wallichii was composed of four types of monosaccharides, namely glucose, mannose, galactose and arabinose at a molar ratio of 521:1:4.6:3.3. Furthermore, the protective effect of the Rhizoma ligustici wallichii polysaccharides and ethanol extract of danshen against ischemia–reperfusion (IR) induced renal injury were evaluated. The findings imply that carbohydrate compound of the Rhizoma ligustici wallichii and ethanol extract of danshen play a causal role in IR-induced renal injury probably by the radical scavenging and antioxidant activities. Moreover, ethanol extract of danshen displayed stronger renoprotective effect than that of carbohydrate compound of the Rhizoma ligustici wallichii.