Purification, Preliminary Characterization, and Immunological Activity of Polysaccharides from Crude Drugs of Sijunzi Formula.

Sijunzi Decoction (SJZD) is a conventional prescription for curing spleen deficiency in Traditional Chinese Medicine and polysaccharide is its main ingredient. In order to explore the effective ingredients contributing to the immunological activity of SJZD, we isolated and purified seven homogeneous polysaccharides from Radix Ginseng (RS-3-1 and RS-3-2), Rhizoma Atractylodis Macrocephalae (BZ-3-1, BZ-3-2, and BZ-3-3), Poria (FL-3-1), and Radix Glycyrrhizae (GC-3-1) decoctions, respectively. The molecular weight of seven homogeneous polysaccharides ranged from 5.42 x 10(4) to 5.65 x 10(4) Da. Monosaccharide composition determined by GC-MS analysis showed that these polysaccharides were primarily composed of Rha, Ara, Xyl, Man, Glc, and Gal with various ratios. Immunological activity assay revealed that polysaccharides from four crude drug components of SJZD displayed inhibitory effects on the complement system. RS-3-1, BZ-3-1, FL-3-1, and GC-3-1 could significantly enhance the phagocytosis and increase the NO production and tumor necrosis factor (TNF-alpha) level in RAW 264.7 cells (p < 0.05). These results demonstrated the immunological activities of these polysaccharides from the four crude drugs. This study supports the therapeutic effect of SJZD in clinical use and is essential for further identification the immunopolysaccharide from SJZD decoction.