• Archives of Pharmacal Research
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.179-183
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• 1987

To investigate antitumor constituents of higher fungi, the carpophores of Polyporus giganteus Pers. ex. Fr. (81 g, dry weight) which were collected in Indiana, U. S. A. were examined for antitumor activity. Two protein-bound-polysaccharide fractions (I and II) were prepared from the hot water extract and one fraction (III) from the 0.1 N NaOH extract of the carpophores. The antitumor effect of each fraction was tested against sarcoma 180 implanted subcutaneously in female ICR mice. Of three fractions, Fraction II showed 85.2% inhibition ratio at the dose of 20 mg/kg/day for 10 days and was named gigantan. Gigantan was found to contain 59% polysaccharide and 27% protein. Its polysaccharide moity was a heteroglycan that consisted of mainly glucose (89.3%), galactose (7.7%), minaose (2.0%) and fructose (1.0%).