earticle

영어

The precedent studies of Sparassis Crispa (SC) as immunostimulator were conducted mainly using Sparassis crispa glucan (SCG, β-glucan), a bioactive component, and there is a difficulty in commercializing SC as a food in economic aspects, since the extract yield of SC using extraction method applied to foods is too low. Thus, in this study, we have tried to prove the immunostimulatory effect of SC suitable for commercialization in consideration of economic value. The aim for this study was to obtain the beneficial effect on powder (contains about 30% of β-glucan) and water extracts (contains about 10% of β-glucan) of SC which were extracted at various temperatures as immunostimulator in BALB/C mice at 6 weeks of age. The powder and water extracts of SC were orally treated every day for 8 weeks and the secreted cytokines (IL-2, IL-4, IL-12, IFN- γ, and TNF-α) in the blood were measured by ELISA kit. The results show that the SC treatment has led to the increased levels (2~5 times higher) of cytokines (such as IL-2, IL-12 and IFN- γ) compared to the normal control group, as well as the increased level of IL-4 (2.7 times higher at max.), associated with Th1 and Th2 immune after 5~8 weeks. In addition, the level of TNF-α that controls immune response by inducing the creation of many kinds of cytokine has increased by 3.7 times higher with the SC treatment. Especially, it was found that SC powder was more effective than water extracts in immunostimulatory activity and this immunostimulatory effect of SC was proved similar to that of red ginseng (positive control), a typical health food. The results also suggest that SC can be considered as a useful, high value-added food material with the function of immunostimulator.