Composition and biological activity of tea polysaccharides obtained by water extraction and enzymatic extraction

The composition and biological activities of tea polysaccharides (TPS) obtained by traditional water extraction, boiling water extraction and enzymatic extraction were investigated. Boiling water extraction (100 °C for 2 h) was found to be the optimal method with higher yield of TPS (1.91%) consisting of higher contents of neutral saccharides (57.82%) and acid saccharides (26.95%) with lowest protein content (3.06%). TPS obtained by boiling water extraction exhibited a strong inhibitory effect on α-glucosidase with the inhibitory rate of 86.67%. The inhibitory effect of TPS on α-glucosidase increased with increasing neutral polysaccharides content in TPS. TPS obtained by boiling water extraction (50 μg/mL) had very strong proliferation effect on lymphocyte.