Study on Dendrobium officinale O-acetyl-glucomannan (Dendronan®): Part VI. Protective effects against oxidative stress in immunosuppressed mice

In this study, the antioxidant activities of Dendrobium officinale and its two polysaccharide fractions (crude and purified, respectively) in cyclophosphamide induced mice were investigated. All samples examined showed protection for the body from oxidative stress, including increase in activities of catalase (CAT), superoxidase dismutase (SOD), and glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px), and decrease of malondialdehyde (MDA) content in the serum, thymus and liver. The degree of protection was nearly equally found with the administration of both crude material and purified fractions, indicated that polysaccharide was the main bioactive component, as evidenced by the thymus index and liver index. Together with our previous work in structure study, we suppose that β-(1. →. 4)-Man linkage and O-acetyl might be the main causes for the purified polysaccharide (Dendronan®) to exhibit the highest values.