A novel and environmentally friendly bioprocess for separation and partial purification of polysaccharides from Cordyceps sinensis mycelia by an aqueous two-phase system

Abstract

Separation and partial purification of polysaccharides from fungi or mushrooms are difficult and have become the main bottleneck in the development of a commercially viable process. In this study, an aqueous two-phase system (ATPS) composed of short chain alcohols and salts was developed for the separation and partial purification of polysaccharides and other bioactive constituents from Cordyceps sinensis (CS). The results showed that ATPS not only purified CS polysaccharides (CSPS) with the removal of 99.1% cell debris, 80% proteins, 90.7% pigments, and 61.3% nucleic acids, but also simultaneously recovered CSPS, adenosine, and mannitol up to 96.6%, 100%, and 88.4%, respectively. Compared with traditional purification methods, the coupling of ethanol/Na₂CO₃ ATPS with ultrafiltration decreased the protein, nucleic acid, and pigment contents in the purified CSPS by 344%, 192%, and 290%, respectively. Therefore, this environmentally friendly method could have potential applications in large-scale separation of multiple bioactive constituents from fungi in the future.