ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the properties of the mineral gels and another traditional adjuvant system, J. Freund's adjuvant, which is widely used in veterinary vaccines and experimental immunology, and also the newer adjuvants which are being considered for possible use in future vaccines against tropical parasites. It focuses on the conventional conception of an adjuvant as a chemical entity that is included in a vaccine in order to improve the physical presentation of the antigen to the immune system or to exert a pharmacological regulatory effect on its component cells. The special interest of saponin for the chapter resides in the fact that it is an excellent adjuvant for a wide range of experimental vaccines against tropical parasitic diseases. The field of adjuvants for human vaccines has been static for a long time, but it has been the purpose of the chapter to show that it may be on the threshold of new developments.
