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Therapeutic Medicinal Mushroom (Ganoderma Lucidum): A Review of Bioactive Compounds and their Applications
Published in Megh R. Goyal, Durgesh Nandini Chauhan, Plant- and Marine-Based Phytochemicals for Human Health, 2018
Medicinal mushrooms are macroscopic fungi, mostly Basidiomycetes and Ascomycetes, with therapeutic properties that are used in the form of extracts or powder for prevention, alleviation, or treatment of diseases and/ or for their nutritional values.82 Some of these include Agaricus subrufescens (Almond mushroom), Ganoderma lucidum (Lingzhi), Grifola frondosa (Hen of the woods/Maitake), Inonotus obliquus (Chaga), Lentinula edodes (Shiitake), Ophiocordyceps (previously Cordyceps) species and Piptoporus betulinus (Birch polypore/bracket), among numerous others (Fig. 7.1).
Choosing Herbal Treatments
Published in Scott Mendelson, Herbal Treatment of Major Depression, 2019
For completeness sake, the above-mentioned list of herbs recommended by members of the American Herbalist Guild as treatments of MDD also includes herbs for which there can be found no scientific evidence – not even animal data – of antidepressant efficacy. These herbs, none of which were discussed in this text, include: Apple fruit (Malus domestica), artichoke (Cynara scolymus), calendula (Calendula officinalis), cat’s claw (Uncaria tomentosa), Chaga mushroom (Inonotus Obliquus), Chuan Xin Lian (Andrographis herba), cleavers (Galium aparine), cranberry (Vaccinium macrocarpon), damiana (Turnera diffusa), echinacea root (Echinacea angustifolia), elephant head (Pedicularis spp.), evening primrose (Oenothera biennis), Oregon grape (Mahonia aquifolium), Indian pipe (Monotropa uniflora), Japanese knotweed (Fallopia japonica), mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris), peach leaf (Amygdalus persica), pine pollen (Tsuga canadensis), prairie mimosa (Desmanthus illinoensis), prickly ash bark (Zanthoxylum americanum), red clover flower (Trifolium pratense), Solomon’s seal (Polygonatum odoratum), teasel root (Dipsacus japonica), wild lettuce (Lactuca virosa), willow bark (Salix alba), wood betony (Stachys officinalis), yarrow (Achillea millefolium), and yellow dock (Rumex crispus). However, mere “expert opinion” is the lowest level of evidence-based medicine.39 Given the wide range of therapeutic options that are supported by experimental evidence, one should avoid relying upon expert opinion that is otherwise unsubstantiated.
Potential of Mycochemicals in the Prevention and Control of Microbial Diseases
Published in Mahendra Rai, Chistiane M. Feitosa, Eco-Friendly Biobased Products Used in Microbial Diseases, 2022
Terpenes are the largest group of anti-inflammatory compounds in mushrooms. Several terpenes have been isolated from Ganoderma lucidum. These are non-polar metabolites comprised of the following groups: volatile mono and sesquiterpenes oils (C10 and C15), less volatile diterpenes (C20), involatile triterpenoids and sterols (C30) and the carotenoid pigments (C40). Triterpene chemical structures are based on lanosterol. It is an important intermediate for their synthesis. Stereochemical re-arrangement of these compounds among triterpenoids results in their structural diversity (Paliya et al. 2014; Sánchez 2017). Chen et al. (2017) isolated 40 triterpenoids from the fruiting body of G. lucidum. About 380 terpenoids and 30 steroids like lanostane triterpenes as ganoderic and lucidenic acids, meroterpenoids, pentacyclic triterpenes, prenylhydroquinone sesquiterpenoids, steroids, as well as alcohols, aldehydes, alkaloids, esters, glycosides, ketones and lactones with significant bioactivities were isolated from 22 Ganoderma species (Baby et al. 2015; Badalyan et al. 2019). Isaka et al. (2017) isolated lanostane triterpenoids, astraeusins M–Q (1–5), 26-epi-artabotryol C1 (6) and 26-epiastrasiaone from the edible mushroom Astraeus asiaticus. Among the extracted compounds, astraeusins M exhibits anti-malarial activity and several lanostoids from the same species show anti-bacterial properties (Isaka et al. 2017). Ganoderma spp. contain the main active constituents of triterpenoids, they were identified as ganopsoreric acid A, ganoderic acid B, ganoderic acid C1, ganoderic acid E, ganodermanontriol, lucidenic acids and lanostane-type triterpenic acids (Ma et al. 2011). The bioactive compounds in Ganoderma spp. show various bioactivities like anti-HIV-1 protease, anti-tumor and anti-complement activities and thus, used for various medicinal purposes (El-Mekkawy et al. 1998). Inonotus obliquus (chaga mushroom) contains various sterols and triterpenes such as inotodiol, trametenolic acid, ergosterol and ergosterol peroxide, which act as functional bioactive ingredients (Elkhateeb et al. 2019).
Extraction and chemical characterization of novel water-soluble polysaccharides from two palm species and their antioxidant and antitumor activities
Published in Egyptian Journal of Basic and Applied Sciences, 2020
Dawood H. Dawood, Mohamed S. Elmongy, Amr Negm, Mohamed A. Taher
There were no reports examined the antitumor activity of polysaccharides extracted from the fruiting bodies of palm species. Thus, in order to check if the novel isolated polysaccharides in this study possess any anticancer activities and have a potential role in cancer therapy, CM and CH polysaccharides were investigated on HepG2 and MCF-7 human cell lines. The aforesaid human cell lines are quite appropriate models for drug targeting [64]. Results indicate that CM and CH polysaccharides were able to reduce the viability of MCF-7 and HepG2 with different IC50s. Markedly, phenotypic changes, including cell morphology and cell-cell adhesion were also observed, in culture, after the treatment with CM and CH polysaccharides. Finally, it could be concluded that C. mitis and C. humilis fruits polysaccharides had an antitumor activity with superior of the C. mitis polysaccharide. Same finding was reported by [65] who studied the antitumor activity of Inonotus obliquus polysaccharide as it showed an extremely cytotoxic effect on MCF-7 human cell line.
Inonotus obliquus polysaccharide ameliorates dextran sulphate sodium induced colitis involving modulation of Th1/Th2 and Th17/Treg balance
Published in Artificial Cells, Nanomedicine, and Biotechnology, 2019
Yi-Fang Chen, Jin-Juan Zheng, Chao Qu, Yao Xiao, Fang-Fang Li, Quan-Xin Jin, Hong-Hua Li, Fan-Ping Meng, Gui-Hua Jin, Dan Jin
Medicinal fungi have been reported to possess medicinal values. Fungal polysaccharides are the most active ingredients, which show such effects as anti-hyperlipidaemia, delay of decrepitude, anti-tumour, anti-virus, detoxification, and promoting biosynthesis of protein and nucleic acid [18] and there is no toxicity on normal cells. Inonotus obliquus, the most promising medicinal fungus, grow on the birch trunks at a low latitude (ca. 45–50°N) in Europe and North America; this fungus belongs to basidiomycotina’s hymenochaetaxeae family and is a white-rot fungus [19]. Inonotus obliquus polysaccharides (IOPs) may potentially be employed for the prevention and treatment of cancer, asthma, heart disease, diabetes, AIDs and hyperlipoidaemia [20–22].
Immunomodulatory effects of Inonotus obliquus polysaccharide on splenic lymphocytes infected with Toxoplasma gondii via NF-κB and MAPKs pathways
Published in Immunopharmacology and Immunotoxicology, 2022
Rui Sang, Fuliang Sun, Hongyuan Zhou, Meng Wang, Haitao Li, Chunting Li, Xinhui Sun, Xin Zhao, Xuemei Zhang
Macrolides and sulfonamides are still used for the effective treatment of toxoplasmosis, but they are easy to cause drug resistance, relapse, and serious adverse reactions to the hosts [6]. Therefore, natural products with low toxicity and great efficacy are attractive alternatives for treating T. gondii infection [7–9]. Inonotus obliquus, a medicinal and edible fungus that belongs to the Hymenochaetaxeae family of Basidiomycetes and grows on birch trees in Asia, Europe, and the Americas, processes many biological activities including anti-oxidative, anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer, and anti-mitotic activities [10]. As the main active component of I. obliquus, I. obliquus polysaccharide (IOP) has been reported to have potential protective effects against hyperlipaemia [11], cancer [12], alcoholic hepatic injury [13], pancreatitis [14,15], diabetes [16], Alzheimer’s disease [17] and colitis [18]. Recently, our series of in vivo studies have confirmed that IOP has protective effects against liver injury [19], male impaired reproductive function [20], and female adverse pregnancy caused by T. gondii infection in mice [21]. Previous reports in our laboratory have also shown that IOP can inhibit the growth and reproduction of T. gondii in vitro, and reduce the parasite load in the mouse spleen [22,23]. However, the in vitro anti-T. gondii mechanism is unclear. As important cells of the immune response, lymphocytes are the primary site of action for drugs. It can be speculated that IOP has the ability to limit toxoplasmosis by modulating immune response following induction of lymphocytes. Therefore, in the present study, we investigated the in vitro immunomodulatory effects of IOP on T. gondii-infected mouse splenic lymphocytes and the underlying mechanism.