Antioxidant potential evaluation of polysaccharides from Camellia oleifera Abel in vitro and in vivo.

The extraction process, structural characterization and free radical scavenging ability of polysaccharides from Camellia oleifera have already been widely studied. However, the antioxidant activities are still lack of systematic experiments. In this study, we used Hep G2 cells and Caenorhabditis elegans to evaluate the antioxidant potential of polysaccharides that from C. oleifera flowers (P-CF), leaves (P-CL), seed cakes (P-CC) and fruit shells (P-CS). The results showed all these polysaccharides could protect cells from oxidative damage induced by t-BHP. The highest cell viabilities were 66.46 ± 1.36 % (P-CF), 55.2 ± 2.93 % (P-CL), 54.49 ± 1.29 % (P-CC) and 61.45 ± 1.67 % (P-CS), respectively. Studies have shown that four polysaccharides may protect cells from apoptosis by reducing ROS levels and maintaining MMP balance. Moreover, P-CF, P-CL, P-CC and P-CS increased the survival rate of C. elegans under thermal stress, which reduced the production of ROS by 56.1 ± 0.67 %, 59.37 ± 1.79 %, 16.63 ± 2.51 % and 27.55 ± 2.62 %, respectively. P-CF and P-CL showed stronger protective effects on C. elegans by increasing the nuclear entry rate of DAF-16 and stimulating the expression of SOD-3. Our study suggested that C. oleifera polysaccharides have the potential to develop into a natural supplement agent.