Fungi and animals are more closely related to one another than either is to plants, diverging from plants more than 460 million years ago. Diseases of plants typically do not afflict humans whereas diseases of fungi do. Since humans (animals) and fungi share common microbial antagonists such as Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, humans can benefit from the natural defensive strategies of fungi that produce antibiotics to fight infection from microorganisms. Hence, it is not surprising our most significant anti-bacterial antibiotics have been derived from fungi.
Interestingly, some mushrooms and their components are target-specific in their antibiotic properties, whereas others have broader effects. With an increasing number of bacteria developing resistance to commercial antibiotics, extracts and derivatives from mushrooms hold great promise for novel medicines in modern times. The hypothesis, increasingly substantiated, is that mushrooms, especially polypores, provide a protective immunological shield against a variety of infectious diseases. During the past 50 years, several major advancements in medicine came from lower organisms such as molds, yeast, and mushrooms (fungi).
Scientists have named 100,000 different species of fungi, and there are many more that have yet to be classified. Some mushrooms have been valued throughout the world- particularly Asia – as both food and medicine for centuries. For instance, the Chinese have used and revered many fungi as tonics for the immune system foe more than 3,000 years, while in Japan, pushcart vendors on the streets still sell medicinal mushrooms to average citizens, who use them to maintain health and promote longevity.
Fungi usually reproduce by spores, producing between a few billion to several trillion. Spores are formed either by the union of two or more nuclei within specialized cells that then develop into hyphae and contain a different combination of genes than the parents; or the hyphae which transform into numerous short segments or various more complicated structures. This is asexual reproduction and so the genetic content would be the same.
Furthermore, the first antibiotics were extracted from fungi. Antibiotics are natural substances that are released by bacteria and fungi into their environment , as a means of inhibiting other organisms- it is a chemical warfare on a microscopic scale. penicillin, tetracyclene and aureomycin, derived from molds, were hailed as wonder drugs for infections and communicable diseases.
Penicillin is one of the earliest discovered and widely used antibiotic agents, derived from Penicillium mold. In 1928, the bacteriologist Alexander Fleming observed that a plate culture of Staphylococcus had been contaminated by a blue-green mold and that colonies of bacteria adjacent to the mold were dissolved. Dr. Fleming published in 1929 the results of his investigations, noting that his discovery might have a therapeutic value if it could be produced in quantity. Use of Penicillin did not begin until the 1940’s when Howard Florey and Ernst Chain isolated the active ingredient and developed a powdery form of the medicine.
Penicillin kills by preventing some bacteria from forming new cell walls. One by one, the bacteria die because they cannot complete the process of division that produces two new "daughter" bacteria from a single "parent" bacterium. The new cell wall that needs to be made to separate the "daughters" is never formed.
Resistance to antibioticsSome bacteria are able to resist the action of antibiotic drugs, including penicillin. For example, four years after drug companies began mass-producing penicillin in 1943, microbes began appearing that could resist it. The first bug to battle penicillin was Staphylococcus aureus. This bacterium is often a harmless passenger in the human body, but it can cause illness, such as pneumonia or toxic shock syndrome, when it overgrows or produces toxin..
Antibiotic resistance occurs because not all bacteria of the same species are alike. Eventually, the small differences among the bacteria often mean that some will be able to resist the attack of an antibiotic. If the sick person's own defenses can not kill off these resistant bacteria, they will multiply. This antibiotic-resistant form of a disease can re-infect the patient, or be passed on to another person.
Taking antibiotics for viral illnesses like colds can also cause antibiotic resistant bacteria to develop. Antibiotics have no effect on viruses, but it will kill off harmless and even the beneficial bacteria living in the patient's body. The surviving resistant bacteria, free from competition, will live and multiply and may eventually cause disease.
Patients with bacterial infections, who don't finish their antibiotic prescriptions completely, also allow resistant bacteria to develop. This happens because a small number of semi-resistant bacteria, which needed the full course of antibiotics to kill them, survive. Instead of being a small part of the bacteria causing an infection, the more resistant bacteria take over when sensitive bacteria are killed by the antibiotic.
Today, in the United States, deaths by infectious bacterial diseases are only one-twentieth of what they were in 1900, before any antibiotic chemicals had been discovered. The main causes of death today are what are referred to as "the diseases of old age": heart disease, kidney disease and cancer. We would be shocked to hear of someone dying from an infection that started in a scratch, but, before antibiotics like penicillin, it was common for people to die from such infections.
Humans can slow the creation of antibiotic resistant diseases by understanding the uses and limits of antibiotics. It is important that one should take all of an antibiotic, and only take them when prescribed by a doctor. Research to develop new antibiotics to treat resistant bacteria continues, but research takes time.
In organ transplant , there has also been a major advancenment owing to Cyclosporin, a drug derived from a fungus that uses insects as its host. Cylcosporin suppresses the immune system of transplant patients hence lowering tissue rejection rates. Without it, transplant operations would be impossible.
These lower organisms are also used to commercially produce vitamins - including Vitamin C. The Vitamin C tablet you take may be a by product of fungal growth.
Mushrooms are valuable health food - low in calories, high in vegetable proteins, chitin, iron, zinc, fiber, essential amino acids, vitamins & minerals. Mushrooms also have a long history of use in Traditional Chinese Medicine . Their legendary effects on promoting good health and vitality and increasing body's adaptive abilities have been supported by recent studies. These studies suggest that mushrooms are probiotic - they help our body strengthen itself and fight off illness by maintaining physiological homeostasis - restoring our bodies balance and natural resistance to disease. The compounds they contain have been classified as Host Defense Potentiators (HDP) which can have immune system enhancement properties. These compounds include: hemicellulose (AHCC), polysaccharides, polysaccharide -peptides, nucleosides, triterpeniods, complex starches, and other metabolites. It is believed that combinations of these products target the human immune system as well as aid in neuron transmission, metabolism, hormonal balance and the transport of nutrients and oxygen. Through a host-mediated (T cell) immune mechanism, they help the body regulate the development of lymphoid stem cells and other important defense responses
That is one of the reasons medicinal mushrooms are currently used as adjuncts to cancer treatments, especially in Japan and China.
Many scientific studies performed in universities and medical facilities have produced volumes of studies on the medicinal effects of mushrooms on many different ailments affecting humans. For example:
Reishi (Ganoderma Lucidum)
It is one of the most famous and the oldest medicinal mushrooms, being used in China and Japan for over 2000 years.
Reishi is primarily composed of complex carbohydrates called water-soluble polysaccharides, triterpeniods, proteins and amino acids. Researchers have identified that water-soluble polysaccharides are the most active element found in Red Reishi that have anti-tumour, immune modulating and blood pressure lowering effects. It has been called an “immune potentiator” and can increase the production of Interleukin-1&2. It has been reported that Reishi extracts “exerted an inhibition effect on tumor growth”. Recent studies have also indicated that Reishi can have a number of other effects:
- analgesic, anti-inflammatory, anti-bacterial, antioxidant, antiviral through inducing interferon production;
- cardiotonic action through lowering serum cholesterol;
- expectorant & antitussive;
- liver (Hepatitis)-protecting and detoxifying;
- protection against ionizing radiation;
Reishi contains calcium, iron and phosphorus as well as vitamins C, D, and B - including pantothenic acid, which is essential to nerve function and the adrenal glands.
Furthermore, preliminary clinical reports and practitioner experience indicate that its immuno-stimulating polysaccharides may make it useful for people who are HIV positive, as well as for those who have Epstein-Barr virus, better known as chronic fatigue syndrome.
Shiitake (Lentinus sodes)- renowned in Japan and China as a food and medicine for thousands of years, it is the second most commonly produced edible mushroom in the world, after the white button mushroom. An immense amount of research has been conducted on shiitake’s varied medicinal properties, most of it in Japan and China. The two most important components of shiitake are lentinan and lentinula edodes mycelium extract (LEM). Lentinan is a highly purified polysaccharide powder, and LEM is a powdered extract of shiitake that is harvested before the cap and stem grow. Both have demonstrated strong antitumor power; they work by bolstering various immune system functions--thereby enhancing the body's ability to eliminate the tumor--rather than by attacking the tumor cells themselves. One Japanese study found that chemotherapy patients who also received lentinan injections once or twice a week survived significantly longer and had reduced tumor growth compared to patients who received chemotherapy alone.
Research studies suggest that LEM may be more effective at preventing the spread of the virus in the body than the most commonly prescribed drug for the treatment of AIDS, AZT--possibly because LEM works by blocking the initial stages of HIV infection, while AZT merely slows replication of the virus and may become less effective over time. AZT is also very expensive and known to cause severe bone marrow toxicity as well as a host of other side effects while LEM is nontoxic and much less expensive.
Lentinan has also shown some effect on bowel cancer, liver cancer, stomach cancer, ovarian cancer and lung cancer. Lentinan stimulates the production of T lymphocytes and natural killers cells. Moreover, shiitake is rich in several anti-oxidants (Selenium, Uric acid & Vitamin A, E, & C as well as Vitamin D). Shiitake mushrooms may also:
- lower blood pressure in those with hypertension;
- lower serum cholesterol levels;
- increase libido;
- stimulate the production of Interferon which has anti-viral effects, and has proven effective against Hepatitis in some cases.
Maitake (Grifola frondo) is a delectable mushroom that is extremely popular in Japan. Like shiitake and reishi, maitake may have anti-cancer benefits. When used consistently as a food or tea, maitake seems to aid in the prevention of certain cancers and stimulates the immune system of people afflicted with cancer (including those undergoing chemotherapy), as well as those infected with the AIDS virus. There have been reports from physicians that patients with Kaposi's sarcoma and other AIDS-related illnesses show improvement when administered the extract. These reports are encouraging, but they are preliminary clinical reports rather than controlled studies.
Cordyceps (Cordyceps sinensis) is an insect parasitizing fungus of the ascomycetes family, found at high altitudes on the Qinghai-Tibetan plateau. This fungus lives primarily in the larvae of one particular species of moth, Hepialus armoricanus. It is occasionally found growing on other moth species as well. The normal range of this fungus is above 2000 meters elevation, and it has been found as high as 6000 meters. Cordyceps mushroom is regarded as one of the most valuable and expensive herbs in traditional Chinese medicine. In ancient China, cordyceps mushroom was taken as an elixir of life and only the Imperial family could afford it.
The right species of Cordyceps can be a powerful stimulant for macrophage activity, strengthening the immune system’s ability to fight against bacterial and viral infection. Human clinical studies indicate that Cordyceps can be effective for treatment of high cholesterol, impotence, arrhythmia, lung cancer, and chronic kidney failure. It is also reported that Cordyceps causes smooth muscle relaxation. This can make it especially helpful for treating chronic coughs, asthma, and other bronchial conditions.
Snow fungus (Tremella fuciformis)The snow fungus has been eaten for centuries in China, where it is considered to have significant medicinal properties, having been used against tuberculosis, high blood pressure, and even the common cold.
Moreover, laboratory tests have demonstrated that snow fungus extracts kill cervical cancer cells, as well those taken from other types of tumors. Snow fungus is known to sensitize the cervix and uterus to radiation treatment, making that treatment more effective. One of the most valuable medical uses of snow fungus is to prevent leukopenia, or low white blood cell counts, in people undergoing chemotherapy or radiation treatment for cancer. Furthermore, recent human clinical studies have indicated that Tremella fuciformis stimulates the immune system, lowers LDL cholesterol, protects the liver, is anti-inflammatory and may slow the aging process.
Turkey Tail (Coriolus versicolor) The Turkey Tail is one of the most common mushrooms in North American woods, found virtually anywhere there are dead hardwood logs and stumps to decompose--and, occasionally, on conifer wood too.
Its main healing effects are to strengthen the immune system, particularly by enhancing the workings of one of the most critical cells, known as T helper cells. T helper cells tell all the other cells in the immune system what to do and to what degree, and when to stop.
In cancer, the runaway cells often secrete compounds known as cytokines that give false signals to immune cells to stop working. This further enhances the ability of the cancer to survive. An unfortunate side effect of chemotherapy and radiation therapy is that they further damage the immune system, in part by inadvertently killing T helper cells.
Turkey tail mushroom has been the subject of a large number of controlled clinical trials in Asia showing that it can help rebuild the immune system in people with a wide range of cancers. The benefit is quite powerful, for it has been demonstrated again and again that turkey tail, taken together with mainstream cancer therapies, significantly lengthens lifespan by as much as double. Turkey tail is not a magic cure for cancer, but it can definitely extend life.
Turkey tail may also improve quality of life by reducing susceptibility to infections and other negative effects of having a suppressed immune system.
The wood ear mushroom (Auricularia auricular-judae)Auricularia grows in groves of trees, on logs and dead branches. It is a gelatinous, ear-shaped, shallow disk that is soft when fresh and hard when dry .
Fungi like Auricularia produce many different polysaccharides because they are used as mucus and in the excretory functions, and these polysaccharides are sometimes found to stimulate the immune system in humans or in some cases cause the production of interferon and interleukins that then stop the proliferation of cancer cells. They have also been found to have antitumor, cardiovascular and hypocholesterolemia, antiviral, antibacterial and antiparasitic effects.
Auricularia has been used for thousands of years for the treatment of various things. It is prepared in a different way for each different group of treatments. For example, hypertension, vascular sclerosis and ophthalmic bleeding are all in one group and rheumatic pains in legs and lumbago are in another. Auricularia has been used over the centuries:
- to treat weakness after childbirth, cramp and numbness;
- for pains from injury or sound, obstruction in arteries and veins, numbness and tetany;
- for malignant dysentery, piles, and enteritis;
- for gastric disorder causing nausea and excessive phlegm;
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6) Prof. dr. E. Grigorescu, Asist. Ursula Stanescu -“Farmacognozie”, Institutul de medicina si farmacie- Iasi, 1974.
