Pharmacological Activities of Mixture of American Ginseng and Fermentation Cordyceps in Rats and Immunosuppressive Mice

American Ginseng and Fermentation Cordyceps, the most common Chinese herbal medicines, are used as health tonic agents for many years [1, 2]. In this paper, in vivo pharmacological activities of the extract of the mixture Ganoderma lucidum and Fermentation Cordyceps (GF) at the ratio of 2:1 on anti-oxidant and immune regulation function were investigated. Normal SD rats or immunosuppressive Balb/c mice were orally administrated with GF at dosage of 0.8g crude herb/kg body weight (mice) or 0.5g crude herb/kg body weight (rats) for 10 days. Body weight, levels of serum MDA and IFN-γ, ratio of CD4⁺T cell with CD8⁺T cell in peripheral blood were detected. The results showed that compared with control group, GF could decrease serum MDA level in normal SD rats. GF was also able to improve the ratio of peripheral CD4⁺/CD8⁺ T cells and promote the expression of IFN-γ in immunosuppressive mice (P<0.05). The immune regulatory function of GF was better than using either American Ginseng or Fermentation Cordyceps alone. These data indicated that GF was effective in enhancing anti-oxidant activity and improving immune regulation function, and the activities were stronger than single application of either American Ginseng or Fementation Cordyceps.

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

References: [1] Zhou X, Gong Z, et al. (2009)J Pharm Pharmacol, 61: 279–291. [2] Kitts D, Hu C (2000) Public Health Nutr, 3: 473–485.