Carbohydr Polym 2025 Nov 01;373:124659. doi: 10.1016/j.carbpol.2025.124659.

Structural characterization of starch-like α-glucan from the seeds of Euryale ferox Salisb and evaluation on the anti-inflammatory activity after sulfated modification.

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Euryale ferox Salisb is a homology of medicine and food in China for more than 2000 years. However, detailed studies on the polysaccharide from seeds of E. ferox Salisb (EFSP) and sulfated EFSP for anti-inflammatory activities have not been done. In our study, a comprehensive characterization and sulfated modification of EFSP was conducted. As a result, EFSP was a low Mw polysaccharide (3.68 KDa). Monosaccharide composition and methylation analysis revealed that EFSP was composed of glucose. NMR revealed that chemical structure of EFSP was 1,4-α-D-glucan with branchpoints introduced by 1,4,6-α-glucan and 1,3,4-α-glucan. The EFSP was chemically modified by CSA-Pyr method to incorporate the sulfate groups. The DS of the S-EFSPs was determined by elemental analysis to be 0.3, 0.59 and 1.07, respectively. High DS of EFSP contributed to a fragmented morphology and high Mw. The sulfate positions were at O-6 and/or O-2/O-3 of S-EFSP. Native EFSP and sulfated EFSP could inhibited IL-6, IL-1β, and TNF-α expression in RAW 264.7 cells and promoted the polarization of macrophages to M2 type. Further investigations found that EFSP obviously affected the extracellular trap formation pathway; however, sulfated EFSP (DS 1.07) significantly affected the negative regulation of protein binding. These results indicated that EFSP and its sulfated modification are potential suppressor of inflammatory cytokines and other mediators.

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