Most, if not all, Basidiomycetes mushrooms have biologically active polysaccharides showing potent antitumor activity with immunomodulating properties. These polysaccharides have various chemical compositions and belong primarily to the beta-glucan group. In this study, the crude water-soluble polysaccharide HEF-P, which was obtained from the fruiting body of Hericium erinaceus by hot water ext...

Three polysaccharide-protein complexes of longan pulp (LP1-3) were isolated in this work. Their physicochemical characteristics and immunomodulatory effects on splenocytes, natural killer (NK) cells and macrophages in vitro were investigated. The carbohydrate portions of LP1-3 were principally composed of glucose, arabinose and mannose. LP3 displayed the maximal moisture absorption, and the the...

The crude polysaccharide SSa, obtained from the roots of Sophora subprostrata by boiling-water extraction and ethanol precipitation, was fractionated by anion-exchange and gel permeation chromatography, giving four polysaccharide fractions termed SSa1, SSa2, SSa3, and SSa4. Their structural features were investigated by sugar analysis, methylation analysis, partial hydrolysis, and NMR spectrosc...

1. Qualitative and quantitative analytical results for the lipopolysaccharide from acetone-dried cells of Pseudomonas aeruginosa (N.C.T.C. 1999) are presented and possible contamination of the material with nucleic acid was further examined. 2. Additional sugars detected (only in large-scale hydrolysates) were mannose and arabinose; traces of spermidine and putrescine were also found. 3. The he...

Various mitogens have been described which act on different subpopulations of mouse and/or human peripheral lymphocytes. In recent years it has been mainly Japanese and German research teams that have isolated polysaccharide fractions with immunomodulative properties [1-3, 17]. In addition to fungal polysaccharides such as lentinan, schizophyllan, and PSK polysaccharide, which are basically in ...

A serious complication seen in critically ill patients is the solidification of enteral nutrition causing gastrointestinal obstruction. It has been suggested that enteral nutrition enriched with insoluble fibers may increase the risk of this complication. Therefore, we investigate the effect of soluble and insoluble dietary fibers on the coagulation of a casein-based enteral nutrition in an art...

Solubilization of heparan sulfate proteoglycans from a rat liver membrane fraction was obtained by the use of the charged detergent deoxycholate or alternatively a combination of NaCl and the nonionic detergent Triton-X 100. Subsequently, proteoglycans solubilized from microsomal and plasma membrane fractions, respectively, were purified by a procedure involving gel chromatography, anion exchan...

The extraction, fractionation and HIV-1 inhibition potential of polysaccharides extracted from three species of marine sponges, Erylus discophorus, Cliona celata and Stelletta sp., collected in the Northeastern Atlantic, is presented in this work. The anti-HIV activity of 23 polysaccharide pellets and three crude extracts was tested. Crude extracts prepared from Erylus discophorus specimens wer...

1. A mild, reproducible extraction procedure, using 0.5% ammonium oxalate, was developed for the isolation of polysaccharides containing d-apiose from the cell wall of Lemna minor. On a dry-weight basis the polysaccharide fractions extracted with ammonium oxalate made up 14% of the material designated cell walls and contained 20% of the d-apiose originally present in the cell walls. The cell wa...

Heparin fractions of different molecular weight and with high affinity for antithrombin were studied with respect to their ability to potentiate the inhibition of activated clotting factors by antithrombin. Inhibition of thrombin, Factor IXa and Factor XIa showed similarities in the dependence on the molecular weight of heparin and was found to decrease with decreasing molecular weight. Inactiv...