Emperor banana (Musa basjoo cv. 'Emperor Banana') is a banana cultivar that has not been studied previously. In this study, a glucose/mannose-specific lectin has been purified from the emperor banana by affinity chromatography on Affi-gel blue gel, ion exchange chromatography on Mono S and gel filtration by fast protein liquid chromatography on Superdex 75. This lectin was composed of two identical 15-kDa subunits with N-terminal amino acid sequence similarity to other lectins from other Musa species. Emperor banana lectin stimulated [3H-methyl]-thymidine uptake by mouse splenocytes and nitric oxide production by mouse macrophages. In contrast to Con A, the mitogenic activity of emperor banana lectin toward mouse splenocytes but not its stimulatory effect on nitric oxide production by mouse macrophages could be abrogated by 200 mM glucose. Emperor banana lectin also inhibited proliferation of leukemia cell (L1210) and the activity of HIV-1 reverse transcriptase. In summary, this is the first report of the macrophage-stimulating, antiproliferative and HIV-1 reverse transcriptase inhibiting activities of a banana lectin.