The structural, physicochemical, and biological properties of sulfated oat
-glucan were characterized.The degree of substitution of the sulfated oat-
glucan was obtained by elemental analysis, whichwas 0.68. Compared to native oat
-glucan, the FT-IR spectra of the derivative showed two newabsorption bands at 1250 and 810 cm
-1, which would be attributed to (S=O) and (C-O-S) groups,respectively. The molecular weight of the sulfated
-glucan was determined to be 68 kDa and itsviscosity decreased by almost 2 orders of magnitude while its solubility increased by more than 100%compared to that of the native
-glucan. In addition, the sulfation caused the reduction of in vitro bileacid binding capacity of oat
-glucan due to the new anionic character and decreased molecularweight. The sulfated derivative exhibited, however, anticoagulant activity which showed a concentration-dependent increase.Keywords: Oat
-glucan; sulfation; bile acid; anticoagulant activity