Anti-allergic and anti-inflammatory activity of Phellinus linteus grown on Panax ginseng.

Panax ginseng (PG) or Phellinus linteus (PL) have been widely used as traditional medicine owing to their many biological activities, including anti-inflammatory and anti-allergic activities. Previously, our group produced PL that was grown on PG media (PGP) to enhance anti-cancer activities of PGP. Here we studied the anti-allergic activity of PGP and its mechanism of action. The ethyl acetate fraction of PGP exhibited the anti-allergic activity by suppressing β-hexosaminidase release, a marker of degranulation, from antigen/immunoglobulin E (IgE)-stimulated RBL-2H3 cells. Exposure to PGP inhibited the level of antigen/IgE-induced TNF-alpha in RBL-2H3 cells. It markedly suppressed the phosphorylation of spleen associated tyrosine kinase, GRB2-associated-binding protein 2 (Gab2) and extracellular signal-regulated kinases proteins, which are required for the degranulation and production of pro-inflammatory cytokines. Its anti-inflammatory activity was observed in lipopolysaccharide-stimulated RAW 264.7 cells. In addition, PGP contained higher contents of Rg1 than PG. Our findings suggest that PGP might be developed as a therapeutic agent for IgE-mediated allergic diseases.