Production, characterization and antioxidant activity of exopolysaccharides from submerged culture of Morchella crassipes

The aim of this work was to investigate the fermentation optimization, molecular characterization, and antioxidant activity in vitro of exopolysaccharides (EPS) from Morchella crassipes in submerged culture. Firstly, an optimal medium for EPS production was obtained by single-factor experiment and central composite design as follows: maltose 44.79 g/L and tryptone 4.21 g/L. Then, one fraction of EPS was obtained from the culture filtrates by size exclusion chromatography and the molecular characteristics were examined by a multi-angle laser light scattering and refractive index detector system. The weight-average molar mass and the polydispersity ratio of the EPS fraction were revealed to be 1.961 × 10(4) g/mol and 1.838, respectively. FT-IR spectroscopy was used for obtaining vibrational spectra of the purified EPS fraction. Finally, the antioxidant activity of EPS was investigated and the relationship with molecular properties was discussed as well.