Atractylodes macrocephala Koidz

Fiorito, Serena, Epifano, Francesco, Preziuso, Francesca, Taddeo, Vito Alessandro & Genovese, Salvatore, 2018, Selenylated plant polysaccharides: A survey of their chemical and pharmacological properties, Phytochemistry 153, pp. 1-10 : 5

5.8.2. Atractylodes macrocephala Koidz

A. macrocephala (Bai Zhu) is a plant used in the traditional herbal Chinese medicine. Its polysaccharide fraction is endowed to exert anti-cancer effects ( Li et al., 2014a; b). In 2015 Liu and coworkers obtained a library of 9 Se-Ps in low to modest yields (19.5%–31.7%) but quite good Se content (6.1 mg /g - 12.2 mg /g) ( Liu et al., 2015b). All samples were preliminarily assayed for their capacity to boost lymphocytes proliferation using 5 doses in the range 0.391 μg/mL - 625 μg/mL 6 out of 9 Se-Ps enhanced the proliferation rate from 18.2% to 34.9%, while the native polysaccharide showed a 10.7% as the best percentage. The most active samples were then selected to accomplish in vivo tests using White Roman chickens vaccinated with ND vaccine. Se-Ps were injected i.m. at a concentration of 1 mg /kg for the first 3 days of the experiments. Biochemical parameters measured included lymphocyte proliferation rate, antibody serum titer, production of IFN-γ, IL-2, and IL-6 and were recorded every week along the 4 weeks of duration of the experiment. All parameters increased in the range 45%–60%.