Astragalus has the functions of nourishing qi and raising yang, nourishing the body and strengthening the surface, supporting toxins and promoting muscle growth, diluting water and reducing swelling. In recent years, great progress has been made in the research on its pharmacological effects, which is summarized as follows. 1 Enhance immune function: Astragalus can enhance the phagocytosis function of the reticuloendothelial system, significantly increase the number of blood leukocytes and multinucleated leukocytes, significantly increase the phagocytosis percentage and phagocytosis index of macrophages, and promote both humoral and cellular immunity. After normal people take it, plasma IgM and IgE will increase significantly, and the whole plant has the best effect. Astragalus can promote the formation of serum hemolysin, improve the hemolytic ability of plaque-forming cells, and has an obvious effect of clearing carbon particles and increasing spleen weight. The above effects exist under normal physiological conditions and also have obvious effects when immune function is low. Astragalus not only has an enhancing effect on low immune function, but also has a two-way regulating effect. The active ingredient F3 of Astragalus has been shown to have a complete recovery effect on lymphocyte function in cancer patients in in vitro tests, and in vivo animal model tests have been shown to completely reverse the immunosuppression caused by cyclophosphamide, suggesting that the components of Astragalus may be useful in immunotherapy It is a promising biological response modifier. Astragalus can increase the activity of natural killer cells (LAK) activated by lymphokine (interleukin-2). 2 Effect on interferon Astragalus has the ability to enhance the ability of viruses to induce interferon. People who are prone to colds take astragalus during the cold season, which can not only significantly reduce the number of colds, but also make cold symptoms milder and the course of the disease shorter. 3 Enhance the body's ability to withstand hypoxia and stress. Astragalus polysaccharide has a significant anti-fatigue effect. It can significantly extend the swimming time and increase the weight of adrenaline in hydrocortisone-depleted mice. It has significant effects on various hypoxia models in mice. Tolerance ability can significantly reduce systemic oxygen consumption and increase tissue resistance to hypoxia. Astragalus polysaccharide has obvious low temperature resistance and can significantly extend the survival time of normal and depleted mice. 4. Promote body metabolism. Astragalus can enhance the physiological metabolism of cells, which may be accomplished through the regulation of intracellular cAMP and cGMP. Astragalus can also promote protein renewal in serum and liver, and promote protein metabolism. This may be another important aspect of astragalus's strengthening effect. 5. Improve heart function: Astragalus has the effect of strengthening the contraction of the normal heart. It has a more significant effect on the heart that has failed due to poisoning or fatigue. It can increase the amplitude of cardiac contraction and increase the amount of blood discharged. 100% Astragalus injection can strengthen and accelerate the contraction of isolated hearts. Astragalus can improve left ventricular function in patients with viral myocarditis and also has certain anti-arrhythmic effects, which may be caused by prolonging the effective refractory period. 6 Antihypertensive effect Astragalus decoction, water immersion, alcohol immersion subcutaneous or intravenous injection into anesthetized animals (dogs, cats, rabbits) can reduce blood pressure, and the effect is rapid and the duration is short. The antihypertensive effect is the result of direct dilation of peripheral blood vessels. Injecting Astragalus injection into the coronary arteries, vertebral arteries, superior mesenteric arteries, cerebral blood vessels, intestinal blood vessels and other visceral blood vessels of experimental dogs can reduce the vascular resistance index. However, when injected into the renal arteries, the renal vascular resistance index increases instead, suggesting that Astragalus has an effect on the kidneys. The role of blood vessels is different from that of blood vessels in other parts of the body. 7 Hepatoprotective effect: Astragalus can prevent the reduction of liver glycogen and has a protective effect on carbon tetrachloride hepatitis in mice. Astragalus also has a certain effect on the conversion of hepatitis B virus surface antigen positivity to negativity. Compared with the control group, the difference was significant (P<0.05). The clinical effectiveness in treating chronic hepatitis was 92.1% for liver stagnation and spleen deficiency type and 88.5% for liver and kidney yin deficiency type, both of which were better than those of the control group (P0.05), indicating that astragalus alone can be used to treat chronic hepatitis. , the efficiency is not ideal. 8. Regulate blood sugar. Astragalus polysaccharide has the effect of regulating blood sugar in both directions. It can significantly reduce the blood sugar level of mice after glucose load, and can significantly resist the increase in blood sugar level of mice caused by epinephrine, but has no obvious effect on insulin hypoglycemia. 9. Antibacterial and virus-inhibiting effects: Astragalus has inhibitory effects on Shigella dysenteriae, Diplococcus pneumoniae, hemolytic Streptococcus A, B, C, golden yellow, lemon-colored, and white Staphylococcus aureus. Astragalus also has a certain inhibitory effect on the pathogenic effects of oral viruses and influenza Sendai BB1 virus, but has no direct inactivation effect. 10 Hormone-like effects: Astragalus has similar hormone-like effects, which can prolong the estrous period of mice and have a good impact on the development of mice. 11 Others Astragalus can significantly reduce blood rheology indexes in rabbits, and its properties and strength are the same as those of Salvia miltiorrhiza injection. 100% Astragalus injection has exciting and contractile effects on the isolated uterus of rats.

Astragalus injection can promote the growth of chicken embryo femur in vitro. Astragalus also has the effect of promoting the increase of hemoglobin, serum protein and albumin in patients with aplastic anemia