Mitogenic Activities in African Traditional Herbal Medicines

Yoko Tachibana; Atsushi Kato; Yumi Nishiyama; Kazuko Kawanishi; Hiroshi Tobe; F. D. Juma; J. O. Ogeto; S. G. Mathenge

doi:10.1055/s-2006-959700

Planta Med 1993; 59(4): 354-358
DOI: 10.1055/s-2006-959700

Papers

Mitogenic Activities in African Traditional Herbal Medicines

Yoko Tachibana¹ , Atsushi Kato¹ , Yumi Nishiyama¹ , Kazuko Kawanishi¹ , Hiroshi Tobe² , F. D. Juma³ , J. O. Ogeto⁴ , S. G. Mathenge⁵

¹Kobe Women's College of Pharmacy, 4-19-1, Motoyamakita-machi, Higashinada-ku, Kobe 658, Japan
²Department of Biology, College of Liberal Arts and Science, Kyoto University, Kyoto 606, Japan
³Department of Medical Pharmacology, University of Nairobi, P. O. Box 30197, Nairobi, Kenya
⁴Department of Pharmacy, University of Nairobi, P. O. Box 30588, Nairobi, Kenya
⁵Department of Botany, University of Nairobi, P. O. Box 30197, Nairobi, Kenya

Abstract

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Abstract

Mitogenic activities in African traditional herbal medicines were examined using protein fractions obtained from their extracts by precipitation with ammonium sulfate. Potent mitogenic activities for human and mouse lymphocytes were found in the three plants: Croton macrostachyus, Croton megalocarpus (Euphor-biaceae), and Phytolacca dodecandra (Phytolacca-ceae). All the gel chromatographic patterns of these protein fractions progressed toward the smaller molecule site with pronase treatment, while their mitogenic activities decreased significantly. Protein fractions from these three plants induced mitogenesis both in human and mouse isolated T cells, but not in lymphocytes from athymic nude mice. By testing further fractionated protein fractions with gel filtration chromatography, it was found that all three plants contained several mitogens having different molecule sizes.

Key words

African traditional herbal medicine - mitogenic activity - protein fraction - target lymphocyte (T cell) - Croton macrostachyus - Croton megalocarpus - Phytolacca dodecandra

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