Mitogenic and comitogenic activities of polysaccharides from some European herbaceous plants.

From the leaves of Plantago lanceolata, the green parts of Rudbeckia fulgida, the aerial parts of Salvia officinalis and the roots of Valeriana officinalis, crude polysaccharides have been isolated by extraction with water and further purified and fractionated by various techniques. The water-soluble polysaccharides obtained were examined for their immunomodulatory activities using the in vitro mitogenic and comitogenic rat thymocyte tests. The results indicate that in spite of the considerable differences in chemical composition and structural properties, the tested polysaccharides exhibited similar significant immunomodulatory properties with a particularly high adjuvans activity in the case of the Rudbeckia and Salvia polysaccharides. The pectic polysaccharide-rich complex from Valeriana was shown to also stimulate the immune function of bone marrow cells.