Asian Journal
Of Traditional Medicines

Abstract: In Mongolia medicinal plants are still used for the treatment of illnesses. Few studies have been performed on the activities of these plants, and hardly any on the importance of polysaccharides in them. This paper focus on the activity of polysaccharide fractions from four members of the Asteraceae family, namely Artemisia sphaerocephala Krasch, Artemisia rutifolia Steph., Saussurea involucrata (Karel et Kit) Sch. and Inula helenium L, that all have a long tradition as wound healers in traditional Mongolian medicine. All acidic fractions isolated showed potent activites in the complement system, but only the neutral fractions of Saussurea involucrata showed a significant activity. Those from Artemisia rutifolia showed a weaker activity, and for the other two plants no activity was detected. All plants contained acidic pectic like polysaccharides with arabinogalactan type II structures as side chains. Artemisia sphaerocephala contained in addition a bioactive 4-O-methylglucuronoxylan, and Artemisia rutifolia was rich in a polymer containing 1,3 linked rhamnose units. This paper forms the basis for future structure-activity studies of these bioactive polysaccharides of these important Mongolian medicinal plants.

Key words: Artemisia sphaerocephala, Artemisia rutifolia, Saussurea involucrate, Inula helenium. Asteraceae, pectins, polysaccharides, complement, Mongolian traditional medicine