| 内容提要: |
Gastrodia elata is the dried rhizome of Gastrodia elata Blume and belongs to the Orchidaceae family. It is used as both a traditional herbal medicine and a food because of its diverse pharmacological effects for the treatment of convulsion, neuralgia, epilepsy and so on. The multiply biological activities can be attributed to its various chemical substances, such as gastrodins, p-hydroxybenzyl alcohols, vanillyl alcohols, vanillins, polysaccharides, sterols and organic acids. Most of the studies are focused on micromolecules of Gastrodia elata, the researches on macromolecules are still limited. Polysaccharides are one of the most abundant constituents in Gastrodia elata, and represent a main group of physiologically active compounds. In this study, crude and purified polysaccrides were obtained from Gastrodia elata, basic properties and biological activities of them were investigated. The results showed that both of them possessed immunomodulatory activities and were not toxic to RAW 264.7 cells. Moreover, the molecular weight partly explained the reason that purified polysaccharides had better immune activity than crude polysaccharides. Based on the above results, it is demonstrated that these two polysaccrides can serve as immunological adjuvants for the wide applications in pharmaceutical and food industries. |