Constituents actually responsible for the antioxidant activities of crude polysaccharides isolated from mushrooms

The major chemical constituents and antioxidant activities of water-soluble polysaccharide (PS) fractions isolated from three edible mushrooms were investigated. Crude PS (CPS) isolated from the mushroom hot water extract by ethanol precipitation contained 15–30% (w/w) total protein and 2–5% phenolics. The CPS were fractionated by ion exchange chromatography and the neutral, and slightly ionic PS fractions (eluted with 0 and 0.1 M NaCl)...