title: Immunostimulant activity of dry fruits and plant materials used in indian traditional medical system for mothers after child birth and invalids.
abstract: Products of certain plants given to mothers after child birth or to invalids were studied for immunostimulant activity using the macrophage migration index (MMI) as a parameter of macrophage activation and cell-mediated immunity and haemagglutinating antibody (HA) titres and plaque-forming cell (PFC) counts as parameters of humoral immunity. Feeding of Prunus amygdalus (Almond(1)) and Buchanania lanzan (Chirronji(1)) significantly stimulated both CMI and humoral immunity in BALB/c mice as evidenced by the enhancement of MMI, HA titres, and PFC counts. Euryale ferox (Tel makhana(1)), Phoenix dactylifera (Chhohara(1)) and Zingiber officinale (Sonth(1)), however, stimulated humoral immunity to a greater extent than CMI. The observation provides scientific basis for feeding the products of above plants to mothers after child birth and to invalids with a relatively poor immune status.
authors.affiliation: Division of Biochemistry, Central Drug Research Institute, -226 001, Lucknow, India.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Puri
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Sahai
authors.forename: K L
authors.initials: KL
authors.lastname: Singh
authors.forename: R P
authors.initials: RP
authors.lastname: Saxena
authors.forename: J S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Tandon
authors.forename: K C
authors.initials: KC
authors.lastname: Saxena
mesh_terms: D000276:Adjuvants, Immunologic / Q000494:pharmacology*; D000818:Animals; D002464:Cell Migration Inhibition; D005260:Female; D005638:Fruit / Q000737:chemistry*; D006388:Hemagglutinins / Q000032:analysis; D006462:Hemolytic Plaque Technique; D007194:India; D007743:Labor, Obstetric; D008297:Male; D008515:Medicine, Ayurvedic; D051379:Mice; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D010936:Plant Extracts / Q000737:chemistry / Q000494:pharmacology; D010946:Plants, Medicinal / Q000737:chemistry*; D011247:Pregnancy
chemical_list: D000276:Adjuvants, Immunologic; D006388:Hemagglutinins; D010936:Plant Extracts