Studies on the host-mediated antitumor polysaccharides. Part XIII. Antitumor activity and some properties of water-soluble polysaccharides from "Himematsutake," the fruiting body of Agaricus blazei Murill.

Abstract

Polysaccharides extracted from Himematsutake, the fruiting body of Agaricus blazei Murill with hot water were fractionated and purified by ethanol precipitation, ion-exchange chromatography, gel-filtration, affinity chromatography, etc. A total of 17 polysaccharide samples thus obtained were given an antitumor activity test (Sarcoma 180/mice i.p. p.o. method) and traces of their activities through the fractionation and purification processes were found. FI0-a-β, FA-1-a-α, FA-1-a-β, and FA-2-b-β, were obtained as water soluble polysaccharides fractions having great antitumor activities. Analyses of physico-chemical properties and IR- and NMR-spectra of these active fractions showed that their main components were: FI0-a-β, (1→6)-; (1→3)-β-D-glucan; FA-1-a-α, acidic (1→6)-; (1→4)-α-D-glucan; FA-1-a-β, acidic (1→6)-; (1→3)-α-D-glucan; and FA-2-b-β, acidic RNA-protein complex.