Abstract:The emde polysaccharide was extracted from Spirulina maxima with hot water, and precipitated by ethanol after depmteinization. Two portions of refined polysaccharides (SPS I and SPS H ) were prepared after further purification on DEAE-Sephadex A-25 column chromatography, and their homogeneity was examined with Sephadex G-150 column chromatography. The ultraviolet spectm showed their characteristic absorption at 195.00 mn. In order to estimate the antioxidation activity of SPS Ⅰ and SPS Ⅱ, three systems of generating superoxide radical (O2-), lipid radical (R‘) and hydroxyl radical (OH‘) respectively in vitro were designed. The results showed that both SPS Ⅰ and SPS Ⅱ from S. maxima had significant capacity of scavenging OH‘ ( P < 0.05), but no effect on O2 ( P > 0.1 ); and that SPS Ⅰ could scavenge R‘ under lower concentration of polysaccharides (P < 0.05), while the capacity of scavenging R‘ of both SPS Ⅰ and SPS Ⅱ decreased in higher concentration ( P > 0.2). These results demonstrated that the significant antioxidation activity of polysaccharides from S. maxima was focused on scavenging OH‘, the most highly reactive one of the oxygen radicals.