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Crude active fraction (ALR-3) obtained from rhizomes of Atractylodes lancea DC. showed the most potent stimulating activity of bone marrow cell proliferation through Feyer´s patch cells. It was fractionated into three potently active carbohydrate-rich fractions, IIa, IIb, and IIc via anion-exchange chromatography on DEAE-Sepharose CL-6B. After these fractions were further fractionated via gel filtration on Sephacryl S-200 and S-300, and Sepharose CL-6B, three active polysaccharides, IIa-1-1, IIb-2-2, and IIc-3-1 were purified from the respective fractions. These fractions were each eluted as a single peak on HPLC, and their molecular weights were estimated to be 74, 3, and 16 kDa, respectively. IIa-1-1 mainly contained neutral sugar (92%) such as arabinose and galactose (mole ratio; 0.6: 1.0) in addition to a trace amount of uronic acid. IIb-2-2 consisted mainly of arabinose, galactose, and galacturonic acid (mole ratio; 0.2:1.0:0.8), whereas IIc-3-1 was composed of arabinose, galactose, glucuronic acid, and galacturonic acid (mole ratio: 0.3:0.5:0.3:1.0). Methylation analysis indicated that IIa-1-1 consisted of terminal, 4- or 5-linked, 3,4- or 3,5-branched arabinose, and 3-linked, 4-linked and 3,6-branched galactose. IIb-2-2 and IIc-3-1 were composed of terminal, 4- or 5-linked arabinose, 4-linked galactose, 4-linked galacturonic acid, and terminal glucuronic acid. In addition, IIb-2-2 comprised a small amounts of 4-linked xylose whereas IIc-3-1 consisted of 2,4-branched rhamnose. Single radial gel diffusion indicated that only IIa-1-1 showed a strong reactivity with β-glucosyl-Yariv antigen.
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