Hypoglycemic and anticancer glycans were extracted and fractionated from the fruiting bodies of wild mushroom Daedalea quercina (L) Fr. These were obtained from sequential extraction with hot water, 1% Ammonium oxalate and 5% Sodium hydroxide solution followed by ethanol or acidic precipitation affording crude extracts DQW1, DQA1, DQN1 and DQN2 Purification of the crude extracts by dialysis through membrane (MWCO 12 400) resulted to semi-purified extracts DQW1AP, DQA1AP and DQN1AP. Separation by charge and size were done using DEAE-cellulose column and Sephadex G-100 or Sepharose CL-4B. This resulted to water soluble neutral (DQW1AP-1A) and acidic (DQW1AP-2A), ammonium oxalate soluble (DQA1AP-1) and two alkali soluble (DQN1AP-1 and DQN1AP-2) glycan fractions.
Characterization of the hydrolyzed samples using HPAEC-PAD and MALDI TOF MS showed glucan-rich heteroglycans (DQW1AP-1A and DQW1AP-2A) galactan-rich heteroglycan (DQA1AP-1) and glucan and mannan rich heteroglycan, (DQN1AP-1). The hydrolysates had approximately 4-5 degree of polymerization with molecular weights ranging from 689.680 to 851.788 Da. The hydrolysate of fraction DQN1AP-2 is a glucan-rich heteroglycan which also contain N-acetyl glucosamine units. It is composed of polymers with 4-5 hexose units as well as N-acetyl glucosamine containing polymers of 6-8 hexose units with molecular weight range of 689.799 to 851.915 Da and 1055.718 to 1379.584 Da respectively
