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Recent studies have indicated that several plant extracts reputed to be lactogenic are capable of inducing ?-casein synthesis in mammary epithelial cells. This enhancement is mediated through a stimulation of prolactin release from lactotropes in anterior pituitary. Therefore it is admitted that these extracts are capable of stimulating prolactin secretion from hypophysis. A partial purification of these extracts, revealed that their active compounds are pectin in most cases and ?-glucan in other cases. In this work, the effect of various concentrations of both pure pectic acid and ?-glucan on prolactin secretion from ewe hypophysis fragments is investigated. It is shown that pectic acid in the 50-150 ?g/ml range concentration and ?-glucan in the 200-400 ?g/ml range concentration are capable of stimulating prolactin secretion significantly (P<0.05, P<0.01), from hypophysis explants.