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Pretreatment is vital to keep the bioactivities of polysaccharides. In this paper, the effects of hot water, ultrasonic and microwave extraction, as well as the effects of protein and pigment removal steps, on the antioxidant activity of water soluble polysaccharides in jujube (WSPJ) were studied. Hydroxyl free radical (OH) scavenging activity was adopted to determine the antioxidant activity of WSPJ. The results showed that OH scavenging activity of WSPJ extracted by ultrasonic wave was higher than that extracted by hot water and by microwave. Furthermore, power parameter in both ultrasonic and microwave extraction affected the OH scavenging activity dramatically. On the other hand, Sevag reagent was better than trichloroacetic acid (TCA), TCA with 1-butanol (TCA-B) and hydrochloric acid for protein removal, and H2O2 was better than active carbon for pigment removal to keep the antioxidant activity of WSPJ., (Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

In order to study the different effects of ginsenosides with similar structures, research on interactions between ginsenoside Rg1, Re and lysozyme was carried out by electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS) and molecular docking. The 1:1 and 2:1 noncovalent complexes of ginsenosides and lysozyme were observed in the mass spectra and the dissociation constants for them were directly calculated based on peak intensities of lysozyme and its noncovalent complexes with ginsenosides. The results showed that the 1:1 complex of ginsenoside Rg1 and lysozyme was more stable than that of ginsenoside Re and lysozyme. As the acidity increased, the stabilities of the 1:1 complexes of Rg1, Re and lysozyme both decreased. Interestingly, as the acidity increased, the stability of the 2:1 complex of Rg1 and lysozyme increased while that of Re decreased. From the result of molecular docking, ginsenosides interacted with the active sites of lysozyme. And the stability of the complexes could be affected by the conformation changes of lysozyme as acidity increased., (Copyright © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

In order to evaluate the essence of the interactions of ginsenosides and proteins which are composed by alpha-amino acids, electrospray ionization mass spectrometry was employed to study the noncovalent interactions between ginsenosides (Rb(2), Rb(3), Re, Rg(1) and Rh(1)) and 18 kinds of alpha-amino acids (Asp, Glu, Asn, Phe, Gln, Thr, Ser, Met, Trp, Val, Gly, Ile, Ala, Leu, Pro, His, Lys and Arg). The 1:1 and 2:1 noncovalent complexes of ginsenosides and amino acids were observed in the mass spectra. The dissociation constants for the noncovalent complexes were directly calculated based on peak intensities of ginsenosides and the noncovalent complexes in the mass spectra. Based on the dissociation constants, it can be concluded that the acidic and the basic amino acids, Asp, Glu, Lys and Arg, bound to ginsenosides more strongly than other amino acids. The experimental results were verified by theoretical calculations of parameters of noncovalent interaction between ginsenoside Re and Arg which served as a representative example. Two kinds of binding forms, "head-tail" ("H-T") and "head-head" ("H-H"), were proposed to explain the interaction between ginsenosides and amino acids. And the interaction in "H-T" form was stronger than that in "H-H" form.

The inclusion complex of beta-cyclodextrin (beta-CD) and osthole was studied by the electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS) and fluorescence spectrometry. From the mass spectrum, the 1:1 stoichiometric inclusion complex of beta-CD and osthole was observed. The tandem mass spectrum was performed. The fluorescence intensity of osthole increased in the present of beta-CD. According to the 1:1 beta-CD-osthole mode, the dissociation constant (KD) was obtained by ESI-MS and fluorescence spectrometry. The KD of beta-CD-osthole inclusion complex is 6.96 x 10(-3) mol L(-1) obtained by mass spectrometry and that is 8.14 x10 (-3) mol L(-1) obtained by fluorescence spectrometry, which is consistent with each other.

The noncovalent complexes of cytochrome c and ginsenoside were studied by electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS). Ginsenoside Rb2 and Re were bound to cytochrome c to form several complexes with different stoichiometric relation. The 1:1 and 1:2 complexes of cytochrome c to ginsenoside were considered and the dissociation constants were obtained according to the intensities of cytochrome c and complexes when the concentrations of cytochrome c and ginsenoside have been known. Competition experiment was performed to validate the result. The K(D) values obtained with different reactive systems were consistent with each other.