Maruzen Oil Co. Ltd.

Takeda Chemical Industries, Inc.

Takara Shuzo Co., Inc.

Takuma Sasaki

Kazuya Nakamichi

Yakudo Tachibana

Kiyoshi Minami

Akira Obayashi

Tsutomu Taniguchi

Kazuo Nakajima

Osamu Tanabe

Yoshiaki Hirata

Hiroyuki Uchida

Tomoko Shiomi

Yukio Sugino

It has been found that water-insoluble, thermogelable .beta.-1,3-glucan produced by microorganisms, lower polymers obtainable upon partial hydrolysis of the glucan or, carboxymethylated derivatives of said glucan or of said lower polymers are useful for inhibiting growth of tumors in a warm-blooded animal. The inhibitory activity against various tumors of these polysaccharides is very strong and significant whenever administered to warm-blooded animals from the early to very late stage of tumor progression or even when administered prior to plantation of tumors. The carboxymethylated derivatives above-mentioned are novel water-soluble compounds which can be produced by carboxymethylation of said glucan and partial hydrolyzate thereof.

Carboxymethylated derivatives of .beta.-1,3-glucan

The invention relates to a high molecular weight .beta.-1,3-glucan composed of repeated glucopyranose units, each unit being represented by the formula: ##STR1## The .beta.-1,3-glucan exhibits anticarcinogenic activity. A process for producing said glucan is also claimed.

Polysaccharides having anticarcinogenic activity and method for

A novel glycoprotein substance possessing a high antitumor activity is provided, which is recovered and isolated from the liquid portion coming from cooking of raw scallop with a hot aqueous solvent or vapor of such solvent and which is amphoteric electrolyte in nature with an average molecular weight of about 470,000 and with an isoelectric point of pH 5.5.

Antitumor glycoprotein substance and preparation thereof

A novel glycoprotein substance possessing a high antitumor activity is provided, which is recovered and isolated from the liquid portion coming from cooking of raw scallop shellfish with a hot aqueous solvent or vapor of such solvent and which is amphoteric electrolyte in nature with an average molecular weight of about 5000 and with an isoelectric point of pH 5.2.

Novel antitumor glycoprotein substance and its preparation

A new antitumor agent is provided which consists essentially of water-soluble, macromolecular glycoprotein substances having a range of molecular weights within the limits of from 10,000 to 300,000 and which is prepared from shellfish or mollusc by taking up the liquid portion which comes from the cooking of raw shellfish in an aqueous solvent, typically water or a saline solution, or vapor of such solvent and which is to be discarded as waste, concentrating the liquid portion to a smaller volume or to dryness, dissolving the resulting concentrate or dry powder in an aqueous solvent and isolating the desired water-soluble, macromolecular glycoprotein substances therefrom. The isolation of the desired substances is preferably carried out by an ion-exchange chromatography with a basic anion-exchanger followed by a gel-filtration.

Preparation of antitumor agent from shellfish

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Tokyo, Japan

Takuma Sasaki