Studies on the constituents of higher fungi of Korea

Abstract

To develop new potent antitumor substances with low toxicity from natural products, especially from higher fungi of Korea, the carpophores of some wild basidiomycetes were collected and the antitumor test for their polysaccharides was done. The dried carpophores were extracted with hot water, and from the extracts, crude polysaccharides were obtained by alcohol precipitation. The alcohol precipitated crude polysaccharides were partially purified by dialysis and then used as the samples for antitumor tests. Among tested, the polysaccharide ofLaccaria laccata, Trametes sanguineus, Armillariella mellea, Clitocybe infundibuli formis, andXeromphallina campanella respectively showed the inhibition ratio of 75%, 72%, 94%, 55%, and 47% when administeredi.p. once dailly for ten days at the dose level of 20mg/kg/day into the mice implanted with 10⁶ cells of sarcoma 180/mouse. However, those ofCraterellus cornucopiodes, Daedaleopsis confrogosa, andCoriolus sp. showed almost no activities.