Vegetable soup has been reported to have anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidative and anti-cancer effects. In this study, five kinds of vegetable soup were developed using a new manufacturing process and compositional changes in raw material, and anti-cancer and immuno-stimulatory activities were evaluated. Cytotoxicity tests based on MTT assay revealed that all vegetable soups had strong inhibitory effects against CT26 mouse colon cancer cells, with soups including Solomon’s seal being most effective based on comparison of IC50 values. Apoptosis in response to vegetable soup was occurred by 3-5 fold on cancer cells compared to normal cells. Mouse splenocytes increased by 266-541% in response to addition of vegetable soup in an in vitro proliferation experiment. In co-culture with splenocytes and CT26 cancer cells, splenocytes increased by more than 280% in every vegetable soup treatment, while cancer cells decreased by about 60% and cytokines such as IFN-γ and IL-12 were secreted from splenocytes in high levels only in response to vegetable soup including Solomon’s seal. In conclusion, all vegetable soups developed in this study had anti-cancer effects, and vegetable soup including Solomon’s seal showed the strongest anti-cancer and immuno-stimulatory effects. These results suggest that functionality of vegetable soup could be increased by changes in manufacturing processes and raw materials composition.

Sulfated polysaccharides are known to be immune-stimulators in mammals and can be used as food additives to enhance immunity. In this study, the immune-stimulating activity of water-soluble anionic macromolecules F2 fractionation isolated from Codium fragile using ion-exchange chromatography was tested in olive flounder, Paralichythys olivaceus, in vitro and in vivo. The gene expression of interleukin (IL)-1β was adopted to check the immune-affection. As a result, in vitro study revealed that the expression of IL-1β was significantly upregulated in head kidney cells by 1 and 5 μg/ml of polysaccharides 4 h and by 5 μg/ml of polysaccharides at 24 h. In vivo, IL-1β gene expression in head kidney was significantly upregulated by 20 and 100 μg of the polysaccharides at day 1 post-i.p. injection, while downregulated at day 3 but not significant. Meanwhile, in peritoneal cells, it was upregulated by 20 μg of the polysaccharides at day 1 but the upregulation was sustained until day 3 though it was not significant. These results indicate that the sulfated polysaccharides from C. fragile are an immune-stimulator and might be potential feed additives for olive flounder.

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-á and IL-6 from T cells, 10.3×10-4 pg/cell and 12.1×10-4 pg/cell, respectively, compared to the ethanol extracts. On the other hand, a treatment with the ethanol extract increased the specific secretion of TNF-á and IL-6 from human T cells, to 11×10-4 pg/cell and 14.3×10-4 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.