Shen Nong BenCao Jing

It's unknown exactly how long mushrooms have been used medicinally, but they are listed on the oldest compilation of medicinal substances called the Shenong Bengkou Jing, written in the 29th century BC. The history of using mushrooms medicinally comes almost entirely from the east, mostly in China, Korea, and Japan. The mushrooms most frequently used for this purpose include the shiitake and the Ganoderma lucidum, also known as the Lingzi, Rishi, or Manitake, which grows on rotting wood. The Ganoderma lucidum was ascribed as having properties including giving energy, reaching optimal weight, and increasing longevity, as well as having important anti-cancer, anti-tumor, anti-inflammation, and immune system effects that have been proven in modern studies. It was traditionally taken as a hot water extraction in tea or soup. In contrast, the shiitake is edible, although its active compounds can also be extracted and used, and it was even cultivated in feudal Japan. It has similar anti-tumor properties, with the addition of lowering cholesterol and fighting off viruses. There is also a history, although very brief, of medicinal mushroom use in the west. Hippocrates of Greece briefly mentioned the use of mushrooms in medicine around the 5th century BC. Pliny the Elder of Rome also mentioned several mushrooms under the name Agaricon, believed to be the Phamatopsis officinalis in his book Naturalis Historiae. Finally, Dioscorides, a doctor in Nero's army, wrote a five-volume encyclopedia in 1st century AD describing all mushrooms as poisonous, with the exception of Pliny the Elder's Agaricon. Today, however, fungi are used for many different types of medicines, such as antibiotics and immune suppressants. One example of medicinal fungi is the statins. Aspergillus terrius, a fungus that's found in soil, produces lovastatin. Another genus of soil fungus, foma, produces squalastatin. These statins can be used to remove lipoproteins from blood vessels. They're used to clear up blockages in arteries, which can prevent heart attacks, strokes, and diabetes. Trichoderma polysporum and cylindrocarpin lucidum are two of several fungi that produce Cyclosporin A. In the 1970s, scientists discovered that Cyclosporin A was able to inhibit lymphocytes, which meant that it could be used as an immune suppressor. Cyclosporin binds to a protein called cyclophilin, and the two of them bind to a transcription factor, calcineurin, to inhibit the growth of T cells, which cause immune responses to foreign bodies. Because it is able to stop this response, Cyclosporin is used in patients who receive bone marrow or organ transplants, so that the patient's body does not reject the transplant. Perhaps the most common medical use of fungi is in the drug penicillin. In 1929, Alexander Fleming isolated penicillin from a mold that had created a zone of inhibition on a petri dish that had bacteria growing on it. The story goes that the mold came from a sandwich that had been left in his lab overnight, though that story is sometimes questioned. The compound was unstable, though, until Florey and Chain were able to purify and produce the drug for widespread use. It was marketed as a wonder drug and used to treat many bacterial infections, though bacterial resistance continues to be an issue. Mushrooms have a proven track record for health and healing in traditional medicine, reaching back thousands of years. Now, in the 21st century, the fast-growing body of scientific study worldwide is confirming traditional knowledge and moving far beyond showing the edible and medicinal mushrooms have a direct application to today's critical health issues. Professor Wasser said a total of 126 medicinal functions are thought to be produced by medicinal mushrooms and fungi, including anti-tumor, antioxidant, cardiovascular, antibacterial, antifungal, and detoxification effects of mushrooms. Mushrooms are superfood, Williams said, but mushrooms, portabellas, shiitakes, edible because of being too tough, is often used in tea, coffee, powder, capsules, and other supplements. Mushrooms are a $30 billion business in China, the new powerhouse in the mushroom industry. In 2011 alone, there were more than 300 million people in China involved in mushroom-based agro-industrial business. More than 3,000 scientists are engaged in mushroom research, and more than 500 postgraduate students working on their higher degrees in mushroom biology. This is important to business because they produce teas, powders, capsules, shakes, coffees, and other supplements and ingredients to hundreds of other pharmaceutical medications. And doing this, they employ scientists for research, biologists to cultivate, farmers to grow, engineers to make things more efficient, drivers to ship, people to create the labeling and marketing, salespeople, conference organizers, book publishers and authors, and the list goes on and on. And then they also provide tax revenue. We have learned a lot about the medicinal uses of mushrooms, primarily in eastern cultures, but in others as well. But where do mushrooms stand in modern medicine? There is now a trending international journal of medicinal mushrooms. Market value of mushrooms and their derivative dietary supplements worldwide was about $1.2 billion in 1993, about $6 billion in 1999, and is estimated at about $16 billion today. As integrative medicine and alternative practices are becoming more popular in the West, people are opening their minds to eastern perspectives on health. Now mushrooms have the potential to end the bigger medicinal picture. Current research suggests that mushrooms have the power to change our dinner plates, but also our bodies and even our minds. In a 2002 study done by Dr. Wasser at the Institute of Evolution in Israel, mushrooms were distinguished as a pharmaceutical product source for their Polysaccharides are any class of carbohydrates formed by repeating units linked together by glycosidic bonds. Many basidiomycetes have biologically active polysaccharides in fruiting bodies or their cultured mycelium. Their beneficial properties include oncogenesis, prevention, which is the formation and development of tumors, direct anti-tumor activity, and prevention of tumor metastasis, which is like spread to other parts of the body. Polysaccharides don't attack cancer cells directly as much, but their anti-tumor effects come from the activation of immune responses in the host. Also, German scientists put together a mini-review entitled The Pharmacological Potential of Mushrooms in 2005 that presented antibacterial and antifungal benefits, activities against multi-resistant bacteria strains, antiviral, antitumor, antimicrobial, antiallergic, immunomodulating, anti-inflammatory, hypoglycemic, heptaprotective, the list goes on and on. All of these in recent literature. They concluded that mushrooms make up about 14,000 to 22,000 known species, but mushroom species on earth is estimated to be 140,000, which suggests that only 10% of species are known. Assuming that the proportion of useful mushrooms among the undiscovered and unexamined mushrooms will be only 5%, it implies 7,000 yet undiscovered species will be a possible benefit to humankind. Even among the known species, the proportion of well-investigated mushrooms is very low. The analysis also uncovered implications for Alzheimer's disease and treatment of pain with a spectrum of activity associated with opioids. Often polysaccharides or triterpene chemical groups were mentioned as medicinal compounds with pharmacological effects. Lastly, the study emphasized the importance that we ensure standardized quality and year-round production of pharmaceutical products, as well as the need for more research and rethinking of the legal status of some mushrooms that could be of great benefit to modern medicine. In a more recent study from 2013 entitled Effects of Psilocybin on Hippocampal Neurogenesis and Extinction of Trace Fear Conditioning, scientists wanted to determine the extent to which psilocybin affects our brains. In fact, this groundbreaking discovery in neuroscience found that low doses of psilocybin displayed positive effects in the hippocampus, the part of the brain associated with the formation of new memories, learning, and emotions. It even aids in neurogenesis, the creation of new brain cells. The study has large implications for victims of brain trauma as well as mental health patients. The psilocybin given in mice within low doses extinguished acute fear conditioning significantly more rapidly than with high doses. This suggests that the low dose of psilocybin also impacts the amygdala, the part of the brain that mediates the perception of fear. These findings can help us improve medicine for mental ailments such as PTSD in addition to physical injury. Now we hope you've learned more about the history, modern uses, types, economics, and current research behind medicinal mushrooms.