Extracellular polysaccharides secreted by alfalfa rhizobium can,at the time of infection,weaken the defense responses of host plants.This would promote the colonization of rhizobia and endogenously grow in seeds by forming a symbiosis between seeds and rhizobia,leading to the enhanced nodulation and nitrogen fixation of alfalfa seedlings germinated from those seeds.To study the effects of boron treatments on the extraction for extracellular polysaccharides produced by rhizobia 12531f,an appropriate boron concentration was determined.Under the optimum boron concentration,the volume fraction of trichloroacetic acid,time of alcohol precipitation,and volume of alcohol for precipitation.Our results showed that the production of extracellular polysaccharides by strain 12531f was significantly increased under 1 mg L?1 boron.Through the L9(34) orthogonal test,the extracellular polysaccharide excreted by rhizobium 12531f increased by 57% (to a value of 33.23 μg/mL) compared with before optimization,when the volume of alcohol for precipitation was increased from two times to three times,under 10% trichloroacetic acid with an alcohol precipitation time of 24 h.The purification of extracellular polysaccharides provides important foundation for the identification and analysis of its structural in future.