STUDY OF THE ACTION OF GANODERMA LUCIDUM ON SCAVENGING HYDROXYL RADICAL FROM PLASMA

The scavenging OH~ and O_2~ effect of a tradi-tional Chinese medicinal herb for longevity,Gano-derma lucidum(GL),Lingzhi,was studied.We re-ferred to the method of Winterbourn CC et al.inour study of OH~ and that of V.Ponti et al.instudying O_2~ We observed the action of GL in-jection in scavenging the two free radicals (OH~and O_2~).Results showed:(1)GL did inhibit productionof O+2~ in the buffers system.This inhibitoryaction was in direct proportion to the amount ofdrug added.(2)Rabbit plasma scavenged thehydroxyl radical.GL enhanced this action.(3).Before rabbits were injected with GL,the meanvalue of ethylene produced in 6 rabbits plasma was129 nM/ml.This figure was reduced to 64.2 nM mlafter the GL injection,a value of significant statisticaldifference(p<0.05).(4) We used the NADH/NBT/PMS system to obtain the superoxide radicals invitro and observed the scavenging power of GL ono_2~.The drug appeared to have significant scaveng-ing effect on O_2~.