Toxicology and immunology of Ganoderma lucidum polysaccharides in Kunming mice and Wistar rats

In the present work, the toxicology and immunology of polysaccharides from fruiting body of Ganoderma lucidum (GPs) were investigated. No abnormal clinical-symptoms or deaths and no significant difference in body weight and food in-taking rate were found in Wistar rats during the 30-day feeding administration. No significant differences were found in each hematology value, clinical chemistry value and organ/body weight ratio, either. It had no mutagenicity due to the negative experimental results of Ames test, micronucleus test of polychromatic erythrocyte, sperm abnormality test, and chromosome aberration test in Kunming mice, respectively. The immune experiments indicated that high-dose GPs had immune effects in increasing the degree of toe swelling and enhancing the primary immune response to SRBC (P < 0.01). But no-significant influence of GPs on the phagocytic function of mononuclear macrophages (MΦ) could be obtained.