Activation of macrophage by an oral intake of a quillaja saponin.

Quillaja saponin（QS）是从蔷薇科（Rosaceae）的南美树（Quill Saponaria Molina）的皮层中提取的三萜皂苷。QS具有两亲性，因为碳水化合物部分的水溶性和皂苷配基的脂溶性。皂树树皮的水提取物在世界范围内被广泛用作乳化剂和发泡剂，特别是在软饮料中。通过对皂树提取物的长期安全性评价，许多国家已将其确认为安全的食品添加剂，本研究发现皂树提取物具有刺激巨噬细胞的新的物理功能特性，巨噬细胞是天然免疫中的主要吞噬细胞，可预防宿主感染性疾病。小鼠口服提取物（剂量：0.5 mg / Kg）24小时后，从小鼠脾细胞或腹腔渗出液细胞制备的巨噬细胞的趋化和吞噬活性均低于对照组。 ...更多信息 与对照小鼠相比，测试小鼠增加了2-7倍。除了这些结果之外，当这些小鼠感染大肠杆菌时，经口给予鹅毛笔提取物的小鼠显示出比对照小鼠（0%）高得多的5天存活率（60%）。本研究进一步进行了人类志愿者试验，以检查羽管提取物是否刺激了源自人血液的巨噬细胞。每8名男性志愿者服用含有鹅毛笔提取物的软饮料（剂量：0.5mg/ Kg /天）7天，与摄入软饮料前相比，导致其巨噬细胞的趋化和吞噬活性显著增加。由于羽毛提取物是一种安全的食品添加剂，本研究的结果可能有助于开发一种新的含有羽毛提取物的物理功能性食品，以预防人类，特别是老年人感染性疾病的未来。少

Quillaja saponin (QS) is triterpenoid saponins extracted from the cortex of the South American tree (Quill Saponaria Molina), a member of the family Rosaceae. QS have amphipathic properties because of the water solubility of the carbohydrate moiety and lipids solubility of the sapogenin. Aqueous extracts from the bark of Quill Saponaria have world widely been used as an emulsifier and a foaming agent, particularly in soft drinks. Many countries have recognized the quillaja extract as a safe food additive, based on the long-term safety evaluation of the extracts given orally.The present study found a new physically functional property of a quill extract as a stimulating agent for macrophage that is a principal phagocyte in natural immunity to prevent host from infectious diseases. After 24 hours of oral administration of the extract to mice (dose : 0.5 mg / Kg), both chemotactic and phagocytic activities of the macrophage prepared from either spleen cells or peritoneal exudate cells of … More mice tested were increased by 2-7 times comparing to that of control mice. In addition to these results, the mice orally administered the quill extract shown much higher survival rate for 5 days (60%) than that of control mice (0%), when these mice were infected with E. coli (C11 strain) by intraperitoneal injection after 24 hours of the oral administration.The present study further conducted a human volunteer test to examine whether or not a quill extract has stimulated macrophage derived from human blood. Every eight male volunteers taking a soft drink that contain the quill extract (dose : 0.5 mg / Kg / day) for 7 days resulted in a significant increase of both chemotactic and phagocytic activities of their macrophage comparing to these of pre-intake the soft drink. Since a quill extract are used safety food additive, these result obtained in the present study might be valuable for developing a new physically functional foods containing a quill extract in order to prevent human, especially elder people, from infectious diseases in future. Less