COULIBALY Ibourahema^1,, KONAN Kouakou Ahossi², TRAORE Souleymane³, COULIBALY Adja Mansagna^{1, 4}, ENAN Reine Pelagie³, KOUASSI Kra Athanase¹, KONATÉ Ibrahim²

The present work investigated how different extraction techniques affect the chemical and physical characteristics of polysaccharides derived from Aloe vera L. Two commercial materials were analyzed: a powdered preparation and a liquid extract from whole leaves. Hydrolysis kinetics were examined for both products. Polysaccharide fractions (A1, A2, A3, and A4) were obtained using hot and cold water extractions as well as ethanol treatment. Molecular weights were determined for each fraction, and protein, galacturonic acid, and sugar contents were quantified. Approximately 25% of total sugars were detected in the powder form. Cold-water extraction (pH 5.3, 25°C, 4 h) yielded the highest recovery rate of polysaccharides (69.4 ± 0.1%), outperforming other techniques. A marked reduction was observed in molecular weight (150 to 30 kDa), number-average molecular mass (97 to 29 kDa), and protein content (4.9 ± 0.1 to 0.00%) following fractionation. Conversely, sugar levels increased with purification, reaching 29.2 ± 0.1%, 76.6 ± 0.1%, and 93.4 ± 0.4% for Poly A, A1, and A2, respectively. The A3 fraction exhibited the highest sugar proportion (≈ 97.8 ± 1.5%), dominated by glucomannan (mannose 77.3 ± 6.5%, glucose 18.7 ± 2.8%). These findings highlight that fractionation methods can generate highly purified polysaccharides with promising nutritional, functional, and therapeutic applications.

polysaccharides, Aloe vera L., extraction methods, acemannan, protein, polysaccharides, sugar