Abstract
Two compounds from Gomisin N and Gomisin A were isolated from the fruits of Schizandra chinensis Baillon. The highest extraction yield as 21.36% was observed in the ethanol extract, compared to the yield obtained form the water extract. The extraction yields of the single compounds were measured to be 0.13 and 0.014 Gomisin A and Gomisin N, respectively. Approximately, 90% of the growth of human stomach adenocarcinoma cancer cells was inhibited after adding 1.0 g/l of the ethanol extract. The growth of the human normal lung cell was limited to 24% after adding the ethanol extract. The water extract lowered the specific secretion of $TNF-\acute{a}$ and IL-6 from T cells, $10.3{\times}10^{-4}\;pg/cell\;and\;12.1{\times}10^{-4}\;pg/cell$, respectively, compared to the ethanol extracts. On the other hand, a treatment with the ethanol extract increased the specific secretion of $TNF-\acute{a}$ and IL-6 from human T cells, to $11{\times}10^{-4}\;pg/cell\;and\;14.3{\times}10^{-4}\;pg/cell$, respectively. The crude ethanol extract had the highest effect on the differentiation of human promyelocytic leukemia cells compared to the other extracts and Gomisin A and N. In general, the biological activities of the extracts gradually decreased as the purification process proceeded, which suggests that higher immunostimulatory activities can be maintained by adding the crude extracts of the fruits rather than by adding a single compound.
