Affiliation:
1. School of Food Science and Engineering South China University of Technology Guangzhou Guangdong China
2. Institute of Chemistry of New Materials National Academy of Sciences of Belarus Minsk Belarus
3. Department of Life Sciences, Food Science and Technology Program BNU–HKBU United International College Zhuhai China
Abstract
AbstractAlthough ultraviolet (UV)/H2O2 treatment could effectively improve the bioactivities of polysaccharides, the relationship between free radical‐induced structural changes and the bioactivities of products remains unknown. Therefore, this work investigated the changes in the chemical characteristics and chain conformations of degraded dextrans by the UV/H2O2 system as well as their antioxidant and anti‐inflammatory activities. The apparent degradation efficiencies of dextrans under different UV/H2O2 parameters were first investigated. UV/H2O2 treatment effectively destroyed the pyranose rings and glycosidic bonds of dextrans and significantly improved their uronic acid and carboxy contents. Furthermore, conformational studies revealed that besides the rapid decrease in the molecular weight, the compact spherical conformation of dextrans was gradually depolymerized into the flexible random coil conformation. Moreover, the significant antioxidant and anti‐inflammatory activities of the degraded dextrans were mainly attributed to their more extended random coil chains, increased quantity of reducing groups, and lower molecular sizes. This study contributes to investigating the structure–activity relationship of polysaccharides prepared by free radicals‐mediated degradation.