Antitumor components of Agrocybe cylindracea

To find pharmacologically active components of Agrocybe cylindracea, its basidiocarps were extracted with water. The extracts were separated by DEAE cellulose column chromatography, Sepharose CL-4B gel filtration, and Concanavalin A-Sepharose 4B affinity chromatography. Among the obtained fractions from A. cylindracea, fraction IN which was the neutral protein-bound -polysaccharide fraction exhibited a marked antitumor activity and it was tentatively named ''Cylindan''. It showed about 70% of tumor inhibition against the solid form of sarcoma 180 when a dose of 30 mg/kg/day was intraperitoneally injected into ICR mice. When each fraction was examined by chemical analysis, Cylindan consisted of 85% polysaccharide, 3% protein and 1% hexosamine. Its polysaccharide moiety contained glucose, mannose, fucose and galactose and its protein moiety contained the comparatively large amounts of aspartic acid and glycine, and other 11 amino acids.