ISSN print edition: 0366-6352 ISSN electronic edition: 1336-9075 Registr. No.: MK SR 9/7 Published monthly

An Immunomodulating Pectic Arabinogalactan from Roots of Cistanche deserticola

A. Ebringerová, Z. Hromádková, V. Hříbalová, and J. Hirsch

Institute of Chemistry, Slovak Academy of Sciences, SK-842 38 Bratislava

E-mail: chemebri@savba.sk

Received: 20 June 2002

Abstract: The crude cold water-extractable polysaccharide isolated from the holoparasite Cistanche deserticola Y. C. Ma. was separated into several fractions by cetavlon precipitation and ion-exchange chromatography. The immunological properties of the fractions were characterized using mitogenic and comitogenic rat thymocytes tests. The most potent fraction after purification by gel filtration yielded the polysaccharide cistan A. It was composed of L-arabinose, D-galactose, L-rhamnose, and D-galacturonic acid in the mole ratio 6.3:10.0:1.0:0.8, in addition to minute amounts of Dxylose and D-glucose. The relative mean molecular mass was 201 × 10³. The results of chemical and spectroscopic investigations indicated the cistan A to comprise a complex of pectic arabino- 3,6-galactan type II with lowly-branched 3,5-α-L-arabinan. The polysaccharide exhibits remarkable immunomodulatory activities exceeding those of the commercial immunomodulator Zymosan.

Full paper in Portable Document Format: 565a320.pdf

Chemical Papers 56 (5) 320–325 (2002)