Abstract
Mubigangjang-Ju (MGJ) is a traditional wine, fermented extract of Cynanchum wilfordii, Angelicae gigantis and Epimedium koreanum etc. In the present study, we comparatively investigated the immune-enhancing effect of fermented extract (MGJ) and water extract (WE). Forced swimming test (FST) was performed as a model of activity test in mice and measured blood urea nitrogen (BUN), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), lactic dehydrogenase (LDH), glucose (Glc) and total protein (TP) in the serum. Each extracts were orally administered into mice, 10 ㎖/kg, once per day for 7 days using a feeding atraumatic needle. After 3 days, on FST, the immobility time was decreased in the MGJ-fed group (133.7±18.6 s) in comparison with the saline-fed group (155.8±16.6 s). After 7 days, the immobility time was significantly decreased in the MGJ-fed group (105.3±12.7 s) in comparison with the saline-fed group (171.3±8.1 s). In addition, the content of AST was significantly decreased and the contents of BUN, ALT and LDH in the blood serum was also decreased. Whereas, the content of Glc tend to increase and TP level was not changed. However, WE had no effect on all experiments. The present results suggest that fermented extract was more effective than water extract and it may be useful for the immune-enhancing agent.
