Anti-oxidant and Immunomodulatory Acitivities of Ganoderma lucidum and American Ginseng in Rats and Immunosuppressive Mice

Ganoderma lucidum and American Ginseng, common traditional Chinese herbs, have many pharmacological effects [1, 2]. In this study, we investigated the pharmacological activities of the extracts from the mixture Ganoderma lucidum and American Ginseng (GG) at ratio of 1:1 on anti-oxidant and immune modulation effects. Normal SD rats and immunosuppressive Balb/c mice were orally given the extracts of GG, Ganoderma lucidum or their combination respectively at dosage of 1.2g crude herb/kg body weight (mice) or 0.8g crude herb/kg body weight for 10 days. Levels of serum SOD, MDA, and IFN-ã were analyzed by corresponding kits, ratio of CD4⁺T cell with CD8⁺T cell in peripheral blood were detected by FACS. The results showed that GG could increase serum SOD level and decrease serum MDA level in normal SD rats. In addition, GG was able to improve the ratio of peripheral CD4⁺/CD8⁺ T cells, and promote the expression of IFN-ã in immunosuppressive mice (P<0.05). Compared with using either Ganoderma lucidum or American Ginseng alone, the Immunomodulatory function of GG was better. It was concluded that GG could enhance anti-oxidant effect and improve Immunomodulatory activities, and the mixture showed stronger immuomodulatory effects comparing to use either Ganoderma lucidum or American Ginseng.

Acknowledgements: Supported in part by the National Science Foundation of China (No. 30825047 and 30902000).

References: [1] Sanodiya BS, Thakur GS, et al. (2009) Curr Pharm Biotechnol, 10: 717–742. [2] Kitts D, Hu C. (2000) Public Health Nutr, 3: 473–485.