Study on Dendrobium Officinale O-Acetyl-Glucomannan (Dendronan): Part VII. The Immunomodulatory and Antioxidant Activity

This is one of our series researches in structure and bioactivity studies of Dendrobium officinale polysaccharide. This time, the immunomodulatory and antioxidant activities of Dendrobium officinale and its two polysaccharide fractions (crude and purified, respectively) in normal body were studied. All three materials showed significant biological activities, including promoting the splenocytes function, balancing the serum cytokine content, improving the serum immunoglobulin level, stimulating the phagocytotic function of peritoneal macrophage, and promoting the antioxidant activity of immune organs. The degree of stimulations were highly found in purified factions (Dendronan) than herb or crude polysaccharide, indicated that polysaccharide was the key bioactive ingredient in Dendrobium officinale.