Assessment meeting for research project“Extraction and Biological Activity of Polysaccharides from Asparagus officinalis” undertaken by prof. Zhao Bing′s research group of Institute of Process Engineering (IPE) was held in Beijing on Jan 9, 2011.

In China, asparagus planting area has reached more than 113,000 ha, engendering a large mass of asparagus waste including butt ends, broken spears and old stem. The waste yield is more than 60 million tons each year, which causes environmental pollution and useful resources discard. To solve the problem, this project focused on developing high value-added products from those waste.

Prof. Zhao Bing made a report at the meeting and participants had a discussion on the project implementations. The experts assessed that the key technology and innovation of the project including: prediction model of polysaccharide extraction from asparagus has been established; ultrasonic circulatingextraction technology saves time, energy, gives a higher yield and has no influence on the structure of asparagus polysaccharides; a rapid and simple method to determine molecular weight and monosaccharide components of asparagus polysaccharide by High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) was established; biological activity of asparagus polysaccharide with different molecular weight were studied for the potential application in pharmaceutical industries.

Experts also pointed out that ultrasonic circulatingextraction technology could be an effective and advisable technique for large scale production of plant polysaccharides.