One of the most common we used was echinacea for colds and flu etc.
I know its not a plant, but i feel it needs to be mentioned. Ganoderma sp. Especially lucidum. This is one amazing muchroom that has shown GREAT promise. Here are a couple abstracts. i highly suggest signing up on "MushWorld". Free and really good info.
http://mushworld.com/sub_en.html
there is a lot more, but here is a sample.
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Activation of normal and tumor-bearing mouse macrophages by active polysaccharide GLIS from Ganoderma lucidum
Writer: TANG Qing-jiu / Date :2004-10-14 / hits: 216
TANG Qing-jiu 1,2, ZHANG Jing-song1,2, PAN Ying-jie1, Werner Reutter2and FAN Hua2
1Edible Fungi Institute, Shanghai Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Shanghai, 201106, China£»
2Institut fur Molekularbiologie und Biochemie, Freie Universita Berlin, Germany
To investigate the activation of normal and tumor-bearing mouse macrophages by the active polysaccharides (GLIS) from Ganoderma lucidum. The mouse macrophages cultured in vitro were stimulated in presence of GLIS, contents of cytokines IL-1β, TNF-α and NO production in the culture supernatants were detected. The percentage of phagocytosis of latex beads by mouse macrophages was counted under microscope, the cytotoxicity of macrophages to tumor cells was also studied, and the composition of GLIS to the activity was investigated. The results showed that GLIS-activated mouse macrophages could secrete the cytokines IL-1β and TNF-α and produce a great deal of NO. The percentage of phagocytosis of mouse macrophages was also significantly increased in the presence of GLIS and it triggered macrophage activation for tumor cytotoxicity. The investigation showed that GLIS could activate markedly the normal and tumor mouse macrophages.
Introduction
Ganoderma lucidum is called "Lingzhi" in China. It is a basidiomycete, lamellaless fungus belonging to the family of polyporaceae. This medicinal mushroom has been widely used for the treatment of various diseases in China for more than thousand years. There are many studies to date on the biological and medicinal functions of the extracts or the components of Ganoderma lucidum. Of particular significance among these functions is its immuno-modulating activities, but the active components and the mechanisms have not been clearly defined.
Our previous studies have reported that GLIS---a bioactive fraction was isolated from the fruiting body of Ganoderma lucidum using successive chromatographic steps. It is a proteoglycan and has a carbohydrate
rotein ratio of 11.5:1. It was found that GLIS stimulated the proliferation of mouse spleen lymphocytes, resulting in a three to four fold increase in the percentage of B cells. The B cells were enlarged, expressed CD71 and CD25 on the cell surface and showed an increase in the secretion of immunoglobulin. Lymphocytes also showed a slightly increased production of IL-2, whereas the secretion of IL-4 was not influenced by GLIS (Zhang et al., 2002) .
The paper is to investigate the immunostimulation capacities of GLIS from on macrophages. The chemical characterization of GLIS will be further analyzed.
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Hepato-Protective Triterpenoids from Ganoderma tsugae Murrill
Writer: C.H.Su / Date :2004-09-13 / hits: 183
All rights of this paper are reserved to the WSMBMP. The official homepage of the WSMBMP also provides this paper in PDF file.
1C.H.Su, 2M.N. Lai and 1M.H. Chan
1Institute for Chinese Medicine Medicine Research, Taipei Medical College, Taipei, China.
2National Chiayii Institute of Agriculture, Chiayii, China.
1. INTRODICTION
The traditional Chinese herb, Lin-Chi, played an important role in folk legends as a cure for many unspecified illnesses. However, there was no direct evidence to support this role until, in the past decade, over a hundred novel, highly oxygenated, lanosta-type triterpenoids were isolated from basidiocarps or mycelial mats of Ganoderma lucidum, and their chemical structure determined. These compounds were mainly ganoderic acids (Hirotani et al., 1988; Kahda et al., 1985), ganodermic acids(Lin & Shiao, 1988; Shiao & Lin, 1989), ganoderenic acids (Nishitoba et al., 1987a; Komoda et al., 1985), lucidenic acids, lucidone (Hirotani et al., 1986), ganoderal (Morigiwa et al., 1986) and ganoderols (Nishitoba et al., 1987a). These findings have led us to consider that the abundant triterpenoids might explain the multiple effects of this fungus. However, the physiological activity of these newly isolated triterpenoids remained unclear and less than 20 of these compounds were reported to be physiologically active (Kohda et al., 1985; Morigiwa et al., 1986).
Therefore, it is becoming important to elucidate the triterpenoid pattern and content of each species in the genus Ganoderma. G. tsugae was used in the present study because it is one of the most widely cultivated species in Taiwan. Morphologically, it resembles G. lucidum (Adaskaveg & Gilbertson, 1986) and crude extracts exhibited pronounced hepato-protective activity in our preliminary screening (Su, 1991).
In the present report, four major compounds were isolated from basidiocarps of G. tsugae and they were determined as lucidone A(I), lucidenol(II), ganoderic acid B(III) and ganoderic acid C2(IV). Three of the four isolated compounds were previou´Ï reported in G. lucidum and compound II was a newly isolated triterpenoid. An in vivo bioassay was designed to evaluate the hepato-protective activity of each sample.
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Geng-Tao Liu
Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Beijing 100050, China.
1. INTRODICTION
Ganoderma is a medicinal fungus and has been treasured for this value in China for more than two thousand years. This fungus was described as a nontoxic medicine which was beneficial to viscera and could improve intelligence by enhancing memory, hearing, vision and smelling. If taken regularly for long periods, its would also retard aging and prolong life span (Li, 1978). In Chinese folk culture, Ganoderma has been regarded as a panacea, curing all kinds of diseases. Regardless of its medicinal value, wild Ganoderma were few and very expensive. We have succeeded in the mass cultivation of Ganoderma using solid-state-fermentation and submerged fermentation technologies. In practice, only the fruitbodies of G. lucidum and G. japonicum are used as a medicine, and the spores are discarded. Therefore, we carried out some pharmacological studies on the effects of the spore extracts of G. lucidum and mycelial extracts of G. capense on various diseases. Some promising results were obtained. This paper mainly reviews the results of our studies on the pharmacology and clinical uses of crude Ganoderma preparations.
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ABSTRACT:
To examine components of Ganoderma lucidum for anti-HIV activity, the aqueous and methanol extracts of its basidiocarps were respectively separated into the two and eight fractions. These fractions were used in XTT antiviral assay which showed cytophathic effects of HIV-1 on human T lymphoblastiod cells. Virus multiplications were also assayed by measuring its reverse transcriptase (RT) activity cells in the supernatant of Jurkat T lymphocytes that were infected with HIV-1 in the presence of each fractions. The results showed that the low-molecular-weight fraction of the aqueous extract strongly inhibited virus multiplication. The total methanol extract (A) showed a strong antiviral activity. Its hexane (B), ethyl acetate (C), neutral (E), and basic (G) fractions showed excellent antiviral activities. The results of the RT assay showed that the C and G fractions had significant antiviral activity. These results were in agreement with those of the XTT assay. These data indicate that the basidiocarps of G. lucidum had several components responsible for the inhibition of HIV multiplication.
I cant say it did it all on its own, because I was on a very wide variety of things that probably all contributed their part to me getting better much faster than anticipated. 
Re: Anti-Viral Plants
