Medicinal Mushrooms versus antibiotics

[Mystic Wolf]

http://www.needs.com/product/Medicinal_Mushrooms_natures_Abundant_P...

Useful antibiotics isolated in mushrooms include calvacin from giant puffball mushrooms, armillaric acid from honey mushrooms, campestrin from meadow mushrooms, coprinol from inky caps, ganomycin from reishi mushrooms, sorolin from turkey tail mushrooms, and agaricin from agarikon mushrooms.

With a diversity estimated at over 140,000 species, mushrooms are a promising resource for new antibiotics and they are a hot topic right now with medical researchers.

Mushrooms are the subject of clinical studies that examine their usefulness in adjunct therapies used as a complement to conventional medicine. So far researchers have found that mushrooms contain protein and carbohydrate compounds such as polysaccharides, glycoproteins, proteoglycans, ergosterols, triterpenoids, enzymes, acids, and antibiotics that when used individually and in concert can stop infection.
Scientists have also found that each species of mushroom has a signature architecture and defense against microbes.
That medicinal mushrooms have been ingested for hundreds, and, in some cases, thousands of years, strongly suggests most are not toxic and research supports them as likely candidates in our search for natural antiviral agents.

Researchers (Suzuki, 1990) discovered an antiviral, water soluble lining in an extract of the mycelium of shiitake mushrooms isolated from cultures grown on rice bran and sugarcane base. Scientists (Collins and Ng, 1997) identified a chemical from turkey tail mushrooms inhibiting HIV type 1 infection, while others (Sarkar 1993) identified an antiviral substance extracted from shiitake mushrooms.

[Minque Paw]

Thank you Don!