Astragalus membranaceus (Fisch.) Bunge

Fiorito, Serena, Epifano, Francesco, Preziuso, Francesca, Taddeo, Vito Alessandro & Genovese, Salvatore, 2018, Selenylated plant polysaccharides: A survey of their chemical and pharmacological properties, Phytochemistry 153, pp. 1-10 : 6

5.10.1. Astragalus membranaceus (Fisch.) Bunge

A. membranaceus (huang qi) is a plant described in the Chinese herbal medicine traditions. Its polysaccharide fraction is well known to enforce the immune responses and to exert a marked neurprotective effect ( Huang et al., 2017). In 2013 Ji and coworkers (2013b) obtained the Se-P from a root aqueous extract and subsequently tested it as a growth inhibitory agent in vitro against MCF-7 (human breast cancer) in the concentration range from 6.25 μg/mL to 200 μg/mL. The recorded IC 50 value was 14.52 μg/mL and the best inhibitory rate at 24 h, 48 h, and 72 h were 50.0%, 76.2%, and 84.7% respectively. Anyway, authors did not refer about effects of the native polysaccharide and did not use any reference drug.