Plant polysaccharides have been increasingly employed in the pharmaceutical, industrial, and food environments due to their versatile functional properties. In the present investigation, a heteropolysaccharide galactomannan (GAP) was extracted from Adenanthera pavonina L. seeds and characterized by physicochemical analyses to determine its thermal properties, photostability, antioxidant activity, and acute toxicity. GAP was characterized by FTIR, DSC, and TG. The photostability of GAP submitted to artificial UV irradiation was analyzed. Antioxidant activity was evaluated by the DPPH (2,2-diphenyl-1-1-picrylhydrazyl) free radical-scavenging method, while a bioassay method was carried out to study acute toxicity in Artemia salina L. Physical-chemical and functional characteristics of GAP support its potential role in the food and pharmaceutical industries. GAP was photostable under UV irradiation. In vitro GAP antioxidant evaluation showed that it bears free radicalscavenging activity for DPPH radicals. The median lethal concentration (LC 50 ) of GAP was 239.4 mg•mL −1 , indicating that this biopolymer is nontoxic. Such results indicate that this biopolymer presents characteristics of neutrality, photostability, and nontoxicity that are commercially attractive.

Adenanthera pavonina, an Asian native leguminous, is a well known highly used plant in traditional medicine. Such broad herbal medicine applications motivated several researchers to study its chemical composition, mainly of its leaves, seeds, and barks, besides the pharmacological effects aiming to demonstrate scientific evidence of its empirical uses. Most studies have been conducted with plant derivatives, and more recent studies have focused on isolated compounds. The phytochemical screening revealed various secondary metabolites with diverse biological effects, including flavonoids, alkaloids, saponins, tannins, steroids, triterpenoids, polyphenols, anthraquinones, coumarins, glycosides and polysaccharides. Experimental studies of this plant have shown numerous pharmacological activities such as antidiarrheal, anti-inflammatory, antinociceptive, antioxidant, antimicrobial, anticancer, and others. Advances in the studies of phytochemistry and biological activity on this plant species over the last years led to the increasing interest of researchers in the protection of inventions focusing on its cosmetic, pharmaceutical and food applicability. This review summarizes the tremendous therapeutic and technological potential of A. pavonina that should be explored, opening new perspectives for future researches and the development of new products.