**2. Materials**

**Ginseng**. Four-year-old American ginseng roots collected in 2007 from five different farms in Ontario, Canada were provided by the Ontario Ginseng Growers Association. Ginseng extracts from each farm were prepared individually and combined to produce composite extracts which were used for phytochemical and pharmacological studies [6]. The AQ extract has no detectable endotoxin contamination as determined by Limulus test.

## **2.1. Chemicals and biologicals**

Sephadex G75 was purchased from GE Healthcare Bio-Sciences AB (Sweden). The Diethylaminoethyl (DEAE)-Cellulose and monosaccharide standards were purchased from Sigma (Oakville, Ontario). All other chemicals were of analytical grade and used as received. Cell culture medium and reagents were purchased from Gibco laboratories (USA). BD OptEIA ELISA kits tumour necrosis factor-α and interleukin-6 (BD Biosciences, USA). LPS from *Escherichia coli* and Griess reagent were purchased from Sigma-Aldrich (USA).

*Animals*. Adult male Sprague-Dawley rats (200–250g; Charles River, St. Constant, QC, Canada) were used. The Animal Ethics Review Committee of the Western University approved the study (Protocol No: 2009-070).
