Cordyceps taii, an edible medicinal mushroom native to south China, is recognized as an unparalleled resource of healthy foods\r\nand drug discovery. In the present study, the antioxidant pharmacological properties of C. taii were systematically investigated. In\r\nvitro assays revealed the scavenging activities of the aqueous extract and polysaccharides of C. taii against various free radicals, that\r\nis, 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl radical, hydroxyl radical, and superoxide anion radical. The EC50 values for superoxide anionfree\r\nradical ranged from 2.04 mg/mL to 2.49 mg/mL, which was at least 2.6-fold stronger than that of antioxidant thiourea. The\r\npolysaccharides also significantly enhanced the antioxidant enzyme activities (superoxide dismutase, catalase, and glutathione\r\nperoxidase) and markedly decreased the malondialdehyde production of lipid peroxidation in a D-galactose-induced aging mouse\r\nmodel. Interestingly, the immune function of the administration group was significantly boosted compared with the D-galactoseinduced\r\naging model group. Therefore, the C. taii polysaccharides possessed potent antioxidant activity closely associated with\r\nimmune function enhancement and free radical scavenging. These findings suggest that the polysaccharides are a promising\r\nsource of natural antioxidants and antiaging drugs. Consequently, a preliminary chemical investigation was performed using gas\r\nchromatography-mass spectroscopy and revealed that the polysaccharides studied were mainly composed of glucose, mannose,\r\nand galactose. Fourier-transform infrared spectra also showed characteristic polysaccharide absorption bands.
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