Abstract: Enzymatic hydrolysis followed by Sevag treatment was used to develop a combined method for removing proteins in crude corn silk polysaccharide. The enzyme used was papain. Its hydrolysis conditions were optimized by single factor and orthogonal array design methods based on deproteinization rate and the recovery of polysaccharides. The number of repeated Sevag treatment was also investigated. The optimal conditions for deprotenizing crude corn silk polysaccharide were as follows: enzyme-to-substrate ratio of 2.5 (mg/L), temperature of 50 ℃, oscillation time of 8 min and number of repeated Sevag treatment of 2. Under such conditions, the purity of crude corn silk polysaccharide was increased from 21.88% to 37.77%, and the deproteinizaiton rate and polysaccharide recovery were 69.97% and 94.51%, respectively.

Key words: corn silk, polysaccharide, Sevag, papain, deproteinization