Isolation and Purification of a Polysaccharide from the Caterpillar Medicinal Mushroom Cordyceps militaris (Ascomycetes) Fruit Bodies and Its Immunomodulation of RAW 264.7 Macrophages

A novel polysaccharide (CP2-S) was purified from Cordyceps militaris fruit bodies by hot water extraction, ethanol precipitation, DEAE-Sepharose Fast Flow and Sephacryl S-400 high-resolution chromatography. The polysaccharide had a molecular weight of 5.938 × 10(6) g/mol and was mainly composed of glucose. CP2-S had carbohydrate content estimated to be 100% using the phenol-sulfuric acid method. Immunostimulating experiments in vitro indicated...