Selenylated plant polysaccharides: A survey of their chemical and pharmacological properties Author Fiorito, Serena Dipartimento di Farmacia, Università “ G. d’Annunzio ” of Chieti-Pescara, Via dei Vestini 31, 66100, Chieti Scalo, CH, Italy & Dipartimento di Scienze Farmaceutiche, Università degli Studi di Perugia, Via del Liceo, 06123, Perugia, Italy Author Epifano, Francesco Dipartimento di Farmacia, Università “ G. d’Annunzio ” of Chieti-Pescara, Via dei Vestini 31, 66100, Chieti Scalo, CH, Italy fepifano@unich.it Author Preziuso, Francesca Dipartimento di Farmacia, Università “ G. d’Annunzio ” of Chieti-Pescara, Via dei Vestini 31, 66100, Chieti Scalo, CH, Italy Author Taddeo, Vito Alessandro Dipartimento di Farmacia, Università “ G. d’Annunzio ” of Chieti-Pescara, Via dei Vestini 31, 66100, Chieti Scalo, CH, Italy Author Genovese, Salvatore Dipartimento di Farmacia, Università “ G. d’Annunzio ” of Chieti-Pescara, Via dei Vestini 31, 66100, Chieti Scalo, CH, Italy text Phytochemistry 2018 2018-09-30 153 1 10 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.phytochem.2018.05.008 journal article 10.1016/j.phytochem.2018.05.008 1873-3700 10483984 5.10.1. Astragalus membranaceus (Fisch.) Bunge A. membranaceus (huang qi) is a plant described in the Chinese herbal medicine traditions. Its polysaccharide fraction is well known to enforce the immune responses and to exert a marked neurprotective effect ( Huang et al., 2017 ). In 2013 Ji and coworkers (2013b) obtained the Se-P from a root aqueous extract and subsequently tested it as a growth inhibitory agent in vitro against MCF-7 (human breast cancer) in the concentration range from 6.25 μg/mL to 200 μg/mL. The recorded IC 50 value was 14.52 μg/mL and the best inhibitory rate at 24 h, 48 h, and 72 h were 50.0%, 76.2%, and 84.7% respectively. Anyway, authors did not refer about effects of the native polysaccharide and did not use any reference drug.