Isolation and characterization of Molluscan glycosaminoglycans from Pazhayar, South-East coast of India

Abstract

Glycosaminoglycans (GAG’s) are therapeutic potential natural bioactive compounds. Recent knowledge on the biological roles of these molecules in cancer biology, tumor angiogenesis and metasis has promoted the development of drugs targeting them. In the present study the GAG’s were extracted from the gastropod Harpa conoidalis. The crude GAGs were fractionated by ion-exchange chromatography and were estimated as 18.166 mg/kg. Different methods were compared and the best results were attained when the GAG were measured by densitometry after agarose gel electrophoresis. The gastropod showed the anticoagulant activity of the purified sample 1.4 and 2.3 folds in activated partial thromboplastin time (APTT) and thrombin time (TT) assays correspondingly and its purity was determined metachromatic activity. The structural characterization of GAG was comparability analyzed with standard by Fourier transform infra-red spectrum (FT-IR).