Lignified materials as potential medicinal resources. III. Diversity of biological activity and possible molecular species involved.

Diverse biological activities of hot-water and alkali extracts of lignified materials were reviewed and the molecular species involved are discussed. Materials tested included pine cone of Pinus parviflora SIEB. et Zucc., wood chips of slash pine, Douglas fir, and tallow wood, and two basidiocarps, in addition to their partially degraded preparations and commercial lignins. As a tentative conclusion, the lignin structure of these extracts might be responsible for the potent stimulation of granulocytic cell iodination, inhibition of viral infection and/or proliferation in vitro, and inactivation of viral ribonucleic acid (RNA)-dependent RNA polymerase and (adenosine diphosphate-ribose)n glycohydrolase. Other activities displayed by some of these extracts, such as antibacterial and antitumor activities, induction of hemolytic plaque-forming-cells in mice, and stimulation of deoxyribonucleic acid synthesis of isolated splenocytes, remain to be investigated.