Interferon inducer, a process for producing the same and pharmaceutical composition containing the same

摘要

A process for producing an interferon inducer by extracting a substance having interferon inducing activity with water from the tissue of a plant selected from the genus Carthamus and variants thereof containing the said active substance to give an extracted solution, forming a supernatant from the extracted solution, fractionating the supernatant to yield fractions containing a major portion of the said active substance present in the supernatant and recovering the said active substance therefrom, characterized by fractionating the supernatant to yield fractions containing the said active substance having a molecular weight of from about 10,000 to about 200,000. Preferably the seed may be used as the tissue and the fractionation may be effected by ultrafiltration using a membrane capable of fractionating substances having the above-mentioned molecular weight.