eng Science and Education Publishing Journal of Food and Nutrition Research 2333-1240 2017-05-25 5 6 399 405 10.12691/jfnr-5-6-6 JFNR2017566 article Jin Gi MIN jkmin2@empas.com 1 Department of Food Science and Technology, Pukyong National University, Daeyeon 3-dong, Nam-gu, Busan 608-737, Korea The anti-complementary activities of aqueous polysaccharides from Teucrium viscidum and their inhibitory effects on the complement system were examined. TM4a, a polysaccharide purified by Sepharose CL-6B, showed significant anti-complementary activities on the classical, alternative and lectin pathways. The predominant linkages of TM4a consisted of 3.1 mol of 4-O-linked galactose, 2.8 mol of 3-O-linked galactose and 2.1 mol of 4-O-linked glucose; the branched polysaccharide was also indicated by the presence of 3,6-O-linked and 2,6-O-linked glucose. The inhibitory effects of TM4a and heparin showed similar results with regard to all complement pathways, except at the concentration of 100 μg/mL. After blocking the complement components with TM4a (620 ̦g/mL), C3 component, C3-deficient serum, or C3-deficient serum with a C3 component were added to the mixture. Hemolysis of the mixture with the C3 component, or C3-deficient serum showed about 18% or 21% hemolysis of EA cell, while the mixture with the C3-deficient serum containing C3 showed an increase in the hemolysis of EA cells of 68% with regard to the classical pathway. Regarding the alternative pathway, C3 component with TM4a was not cleaved into C3b and C3a during electrophoresis. http://pubs.sciepub.com/jfnr/5/6/6/jfnr-5-6-6.pdf complement anti-complementary polysaccharide