Anti-allergic constituents in the culture medium ofGanoderma lucidum. (II) The inhibitory effect of cyclooctasulfur on histamine release

K. Tasaka, M. Mio, K. Izushi, M. Akagi, T. Makino

Abstract

For centuries, Ganoderma lucidum has been used in Oriental medicine for the treatment of chronic bronchitis. Sequential fractions of the culture medium of this plant revealed that one of the active constitutents was cyclooctasulfur. The latter effectively inhibited hsitamine release from rat peritoneal mast cells and impeded⁴⁵Ca uptake into these cells without affecting the cyclic AMP content. SDS-PAGE analysis indicated that cyclooctasulfur induced some changes in protein bands obtained from the membrane fraction of mast cells, suggesting that this compound interacts with membrane proteins so as to inhibit⁴⁵Ca uptake, and that this may be the main cause of histamine release inhibition.

Reference:

Agents and Actions, May 1988, Volume 23, Issue 3,  pp 157–160