The Antioxidant Polysaccharide from (DC.) Makino Adjusts the Immune Response of Mice Infected by Bacteria.

(DC.) Makino is a herbal medicine and it is recorded that its water extract can be used to treat acute diseases caused by bacterial infections. In order to understand the polysaccharide of (DC.) Makino (SMP), FT-IR and HPLC methods were performed to determine the basic chemical structure and monosaccharide compositions of SMP. The antioxidant capacity of SMP was analyzed by monitoring both the scavenging rate of DPPH and ABTS free radical. To investigate the effects of SMP on the acute bacterial disease, minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) of SMP on or were detected; meanwhile, mice were administrated with SMP for 7 days and then infected with or , and the parameters were measured at the 9 day. Results showed that SMP was a furanose which was mainly composed of glucose (60.3%) and had certain antioxidant activities. Both MIC values of SMP on and were 250 ml/mL, which means that SMP has no direct antibacterial effects. The mice experiments revealed that SMP had potential effects on immunomodulatory by reducing WBC and the expression of serum IL-1, IL-6, and TNF- and increasing IgM of or infected mice. These findings supported the effect of (DC.) Makino in folk use with scientific evidence.