ACTIVATION OF MACROPHAGES BY CRUDE POLYSACCHARIDE FRACTIONS OBTAINED FROM SHOOTS OF GLYCYRRHIZA-GLABRA AND HAIRY ROOTS OF GLYCYRRHIZA-URALENSIS IN-VITRO

Many plant polysaccharide fractions have been reported as immunomodula tory agents. However, sometimes the possibility of contamination with bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS), a potent B cell mitogen and immune modulator, is discussed. In the present paper, we investigated the ef fects of crude polysaccharide fractions obtained from the shoot and ha iry root of Glycyrrhizae sp, on murine peritoneal macrophage function, in order to clarify whether plants grown under aseptic conditions pro duce immunomodulatory polysaccharides, All crude polysaccharide fracti ons induced nitric oxide production by murine peritoneal macrophages i n vitro. Chemical analysis revealed that LPS-like molecules were not p resent in all preparations. These results suggested that shoot and hai ry root biosynthesized polysaccharides that could stimulate macrophage s de novo.