Mitogenic Activities in African traditional herbal medicines

Abstract

Mitogenic activities in African traditional herbal rued icines were examined using protein fractions obtained from their extracts by precipitation with am¬monium sulfate. Potent mitogenic activities for human and mouse lymphocytes were found in the three plants Croton macrostachyus. Croton megalocarpus (Euphorbiaceae), and Phytolacca dodecandra (Phyto¬laccaceae). AII the gel chromatographic patterns of these ¬protein fractions progressed toward the smaller mole¬cule site with pronase treatment, while their mitogenic: activities decreased significantly. Protein fractions from I these three plants induced mitogenesis both in human and mouse isolated T cells, but not in lymphocytes from athymic nude mice. By testing further fractionated protein fractions with gel filtration chromatography. it was found that all three plants contained several mitogens having different molecule sizes.