Anti-allergic constituents in the culture medium of Ganoderma lucidum. (I). Inhibitory effect of oleic acid on histamine release.

The chloroform extract from Ganoderma lucidum broth markedly inhibited histamine release from rat peritoneal mast cells. From the active fractions, palmitic acid, stearic acid, oleic acid and linoleic acid were isolated. Oleic acid dose-dependently inhibited the histamine release and 45Ca uptake into mast cells induced by compound 48/80 and A-23187 at concentrations of 5 to 50 microM and 0.5 to 5 microM, respectively. Saturated fatty acids, however, had only a weak inhibitory effect on histamine release. Although linoleic acid and linolenic acid effectively prevented this release, these two compounds caused marked release at concentrations higher than 10 microM and 20 microM, respectively. Oleic acid induces membrane-stabilization in model membrane systems. It was concluded that one of the effective constituents obtainable from the chloroform extract of G. lucidum-cultured broth is oleic acid.