title: The role of crude polysaccharide fractions on the mitogenic activity by Shosaikoto.
abstract: Shosaikoto, which is one of the Japanese and Chinese traditional herbal medicine mixtures, has several immunomodulating activities. Especially, Shosaikoto is a potent polyclonal B cell mitogen in vivo and in vitro. In order to characterize the active substances for mitogenic activity, Shosaikoto was fractionated by means of ethanol precipitation to give two fractions, called ethanol-precipitate (EP) fraction and ethanol-soluble (ES) fraction. The EP fraction consisted mainly of polysaccharides and showed significant mitogenic activity. The ES fraction consisted of low molecular compounds and did not show the activity in vitro. The EP fraction of hot water extracts of Glycyrrhizae Radix and Bupureuri Radix showed the activities, and the ES fraction of a hot water extract of Glycyrrhizae Radix and all fractions of hot water extract of Scutellariae Radix showed the cytotoxicity. These results suggested that the crude polysaccharide fractions could play an important role in the mitogenic activity by Shosaikoto.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacognosy and Plant Chemistry, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Nagoya City University, Nagoya, Japan.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Terawaki
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nose
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ogihara