Polysaccharide-containing Macromolecules in a Kampo (Traditional Japanese Herbal) Medicine, Hochuekkito: Dual Active Ingredients for Modulation of Immune Functions on Intestinal Peyer’s Patches and Epithelial cells.

Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2009 Dec 4;

Authors: Kiyohara H, Nonaka K, Sekiya M, Matsumoto T, Nagai T, Tabuchi Y, Yamada H

A traditional Japanese herbal (Kampo) medicine, Hochuekkito (Bu-Zhong-Yi-Qi-Tang in Chinese, TJ-41) is a well-known Kampo formula, and has been found to enhance antigen-specific antibody response in not only local mucosal immune system in upper respiratory tract, but also systemic immune system through upper respiratory mucosal immune system. Although this immunopharmacological effect has been proposed to express by modulation of intestinal immune system including Peyer’s patches and intestinal epithelial cells, active ingredients are not known. TJ-41 directly affected the production of bone marrow cell-proliferative growth factors from murine Peyer’s patch immunocompetent cells in vitro. Among low molecular, intermediate size and macromolecular weight fractions prepared from TJ-41, only fraction containing macromolecular weight ingredients showed Peyer’s patch-mediated bone marrow cell-proliferation enhancing activity. Anion-exchange chromatography and gel filtration gave 17 subfractions comprising polysaccharides and lignins from the macromolecular weight fraction of TJ-41, and some of the subfractions showed significant enhancing activities having different degrees. Some of the subfractions also expressed stimulating activity on G-CSF-production from colonic epithelial cells, and statistically significant positive correlation was observed among enhancing activities of the subfractions against Peyer’s patch immunocompetent cells and epithelial cells. Among the fractions from TJ-41 oral administration of macromolecular weight ingredient fraction to mice succeeded to enhance antigen-specific antibody response in systemic immune system through upper respiratory mucosal immune system, but all the separated fractions failed to enhance the in vivo antibody response in upper respiratory tract.

BOTTOM LINE: Peyer’s patches are part of your immune system. Since you take in potentially disease producing organisms and other antigens, these patches are part of the immune surveillance mechanism to guard your body from what you eat. They contain macrophages, dendritic cells, B-lymphocytes, and T-lymphocytes. This highly technical laboratory study shows that some fractions of Hochuekkito ( a mixture of raw Japanese herbs) are capable of enhancing this immune response and boosting your protection. Studies of this kind are necessary to figure out what parts of what actually work vs. being just fluff or potentially dangerous fractions. As noted before, philosophically this is anti-naturopathic because it is likely that various parts of plants/herbs act together to creates a synergy or enhanced effect. The problem is that this is not always the case and some fractions may actually decrease the overall effectiveness of a plant/herb extract. So, what we do with the information can be argued, but getting information such as this is potentially very helpful.