Abstract:Three succinyl xanthan oligosaccharides(XGOSSA-1, XGOSSA-2, and XGOSSA-3) were prepared. The products were characterized by FT-IR, and the molecular weights of the products determined by GPC method were 7 560, 6 400 and 7 430, respectively. The pyruvic contents of the three derivatives were 4.6%, 4.9% and 4.9% respectively. The reducing sugar contents were 20.5%, 19.4% and 19.0%. The substituting degrees were 0.18, 0.32 and 0.43. Antioxidant activity of the derivatives was evaluated by the scavenging of superoxide anion radical(O2-), hydroxyl radical(·OH), 2, 2-diphenyl-1-picryhydrazyl(DPPH) radical, hydrogen peroxide(H2O2) and determination of reducing power. The order of antioxidant activity was:XGOSMA-1>XGOSMA-2>XGOSMA-3. It indicated that the antioxidant activity of succinyl xanthan oligosaccharides derivatives decreased with the increasing of substituting degrees when they have the similar molecular weight and contents of pyruvic acid and reducing sugar. The results may be related to the fact that the active hydroxyl group decreased with the increasing of the substituting degrees.