Comparison of Anti-stress and Immunomodulatory Activities Between Ginseng and its Sulfur-Fumigated Sample

OBJECTIVE To study the anti-stress and immunomodulatory activities of ginseng and its sulfur-fumigated sample. METHODS For anti-stress study， bearing hypoxia at normal pressure and load swimming tests were conducted， while for immunomodulatory activity study， cyclophosphamide (CTX) induced immunedeficient mouse model was used， and the index of spleen and thymus， the contents of WBC， CD3*， CD4*， CD8*， CD19* in blood and IL-2，IL-6， IL-8，IFN-γin serum were detected. RESULTS The hypoxia tolerance time， the index of spleen and thymus， and the contents of WBC， IFN-γ， CD4*and CD19*of mice administered with sulfur-fumigated ginseng at low dosage significantly decreased when compared with that administered with non-fumigated ginseng. In addition， at high dosage， the load swimming time， the index of spleen and thymus， and the contents of WBC， IL-2， IL-6， IFN-γ， CD3*， CD4*， CD8*， CD19* of mice administered with sulfur-fumigated ginseng were also decreased significantly when compared with that of non-fumigated ginseng. CONCLUSION All these results suggested that sulfur-fumigation could significantly affect the pharmacological activities of ginseng.