A new polysaccharide from leaf of Ginkgo biloba L

A water-soluble polysaccharide, GPB, was obtained from leaf of Ginkgo biloba L by hot water extraction followed by precipitation with ethanol and fractionation with gel chromatography. The results of HPLC with TSK-GEL column and gel filtration chromatography with Sepharose CL-6B analysis indicated GPB was uniform in polarity and its molecular weight (MW) was about 10 kDa. The structure of GPB was analysed using chemical methods, IR spectroscopy, and NMR spectroscopy. GPB has a high branched structure with polygalactose as core part of backbone. The repeating unit of polygalactose consists of 1,6-linked Galactose (Gal) and 1,3,6-linked Gal.