Herbal products that have been used in traditional Chinese medicine for thousands of years are thought to be effective in maintaining good health and treating disease. Herbal products can contain different components that exhibit different biological activities. Characterizing and evaluating these components can confirm the herb’s traditional use, as well as provide leads for developing new drugs from a single component. Herbal dietary supplements are becoming increasingly popular worldwide as people look for ways to improve their health. In conclusion, traditional Chinese medicine remedies should be looked into again using modern scientific methods to make sure they are effective and safe. This way, they can be developed into top-notch dietary supplements and new medicines.
Herbal and Medicinal Mushrooms Identification
We felt that someone who wanted to use mushrooms as a medicine really needed to learn how to identify them from an expert in person. We still feel that way, but we decided to feature CBD-rich hemp flowers that can be found in commerce. The article is not about identifying wild medicinal mushrooms. You can buy medicinal mushrooms from herbal apothecaries or even your grocery store. Recently, my father-in-law was hospitalized after eating a mushroom that was misidentified. He came close to dying, but fortunately recovered. It’s not something to fool around with!
When purchasing mushrooms always buy organic. Many mushrooms that are sold in grocery stores are sprayed with a lot of different pesticides.
Historical Use of Herbal and Medicinal Mushrooms
Mushrooms have been used as both medicine and food for thousands of years. The earliest written reference to people using mushrooms medicinally is from an Ayurvedic source from 5000 BP.
The Chinese have been using mushrooms as medicine for thousands of years and have a very sophisticated understanding of how they work. Mushrooms like cordyceps and reishi were considered very valuable and were only allowed to be consumed by the emperor. Now, these mushrooms are cultivated and are often times more affordable then store bought mushrooms.
The Greeks and Romans ate mushrooms frequently. According to Greek mythology, mushrooms were the food of the gods.
General Characteristics of Herbal and Medicinal Mushrooms
We believe that there are more than 1.4 million species of mushrooms on earth, but only a tenth of them have been scientifically named and cataloged.
All medicinal and herbal mushrooms contain beta-D-glucan, a type of polysaccharide. Some plant cellulose and fungi contain chemical constituents that are commonly found in other plants. They refers to a class of drugs known as biologics, which have been studied extensively for their ability to modulate, or change, the immune system. Mushrooms have been found to be helpful in cancer prevention and treatment, HIV and AIDS, and other immune function disorders.
You can cook them, sauté them, blend them, or even eat them raw. you can prepare herbal and medicinal mushrooms in many ways. You can cook them, sauté them, blend them, or even eat them raw. They can be cooked into food, or made into tea or decoction or syrup. They can also be powdered and taken as capsules. Another way to prepare the mushrooms is to boil them and then add 20% alcohol to the water to preserve it.
Straining the mixture and placing the marc into a pan to simmer with 5 parts water to the mushroom volume is recommended. This is simmered for an hour and then strained. After the water is boiled, it is simmered until it is reduced by 4/5. To the original extract, we add more of it until there is only 20% alcohol left in the final product.
Medicinal Mushrooms
Agaricus blazei Murill (???? b? x? mó g?; Agaricaceae)
Agaricus blazei Murill is an edible, medicinal mushroom from Brazil. It has been grown commercially for the health food market. This mushroom has traditionally been used to treat various diseases, including cancer, chronic hepatitis, diabetes, arteriosclerosis, and hyperlipidemia. Many people are interested in using this mushroom or its extracts as dietary supplements because there is evidence that it can help with a variety of issues like cancer, viruses, inflammation, blood sugar, cholesterol, and blood pressure. AbM mushroom extracts contain various active substances that promote stimulation of the immune system. These include polysaccharides, such as proteoglycans, (1→3)-β- and (1→6)-β-D-glucans.
Chaga (Inonotus obliquus)
Chaga is a parasite that grows on birch trees. This mycelium mass has been used in folk medicine for centuries, most notably in Russia. It is not technically a mushroom, however. Many people believe in the healing power of green tea and now science is catching up. Studies are finding immunostimulating properties and that it protects against oxidative stress. It is for its use against many types of cancer, including cancer of the breast, lip, skin, and colon.
You can make a Chaga decoction by boiling the Chaga mushroom in water, or you can make an alcohol extract by soaking the Chaga in alcohol. The root that has been boiled in water tastes good and is sometimes referred to as a “coffee substitute.”
Chaga (Inonotus obliquus) is a slow-growing fungus that lives on beech and birch trees. Chaga is not a mushroom Chaga is a hard, dark, cracked structure with no spores. It is not a mushroom. Some mycologists call Chaga an above-ground sclerotium. Chaga grows on living trees and takes many years for a soft-ball size structure to form. A resupinate crust forms on the ground near the tree once it dies. This is the spore-reproducing structure. Scientists are unsure if removing Chaga will negatively impact the formation of a spore-producing crust. Radical reduction in the wild population of Chaga is known to be happening as a result of its harvesting. And since we can grow mycelium sustainably while retaining its beneficial properties, it is not necessary to harvest wild chaga for commercial purposes. Thank you. Respectfully, Paul Stamets, www.fungi.com
Coriolus versicolor (?? yún zh?; Polyporaceae)
Coriolus versicolor, also known as the Turkey Tail mushroom, is a mushroom with a long history of medicinal use in China and Japan. It is one of the most researched and respected medicinal mushrooms from Europe to the Far East. These mushrooms have high levels of β-glucans, which help boost the immune system. The proteins that are most active in medicine are beta-glucan polysaccharides (PSKs) and polysaccharide-peptides (PSPs). Various clinical tests have found that PSKs can help to shrink tumors and are more effective when used as part of a combination therapy. Other studies have found that alkaloids can help fight viral infections such as ectromelia virus and cytomegalovirus, as well as cell-free human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). PSKs not only boost your immune system, but also have a powerful effect against bacteria, such as Escherichia coli and Listeria monocytogenes, as well as Candida. PSPs are a type of drug that have been developed more recently in China. They are used to treat cancer and to modify the immune system. PSPs have the ability to remove harmful toxins, such as oxidants, from the body.
Ganoderma (?? líng zh?; Ganoderma lucidum, Polyporaceae)
Ganoderma has been used as a tonic and to treat various diseases, including chronic hepatopathy, hypertension, neurasthenia, insomnia, bronchitis, gastric ulcer, diabetes, and cancer in China, Japan, Korea, and other Asian countries for more than 2,000 years. Ganoderma has many health benefits with no known side effects, so it’s considered the best herbal substance. The mushroom G. lucidum contains many biologically active compounds, such as triterpenoids, polysaccharides, nucleotides, sterols, steroids, fatty acids, proteins/peptides, and trace elements (Sanodiya et al., 2009). Most of the active triterpenoids in ling zh? are ganoderic acids. They have been found to reduce histamine release and cholesterol synthesis, as well as show promise in reducing blood pressure, fighting tumors, and HIV. G. lucidum contains various types of polysaccharides which can have different effects on immunity, including stimulating or suppressing the immune response, inhibiting the growth of new blood vessels, and killing cells. Some preliminary research in animals suggests that certain chemicals in G. lucidum may help to lower blood sugar levels and improve lipid metabolism.
Lentinus (?? xi?ng xùn; Shiitake, Lentinus edodes, Marasmiaceae)
Four out of five of the world’s most cultivated edible mushrooms are shiitake mushrooms. Mushrooms have been used medicinally and as healthy food for thousands of years in Japan, China, and Korea, and are now becoming popular in nutritional and medicinal products throughout Europe and North America. The health benefits of shiitake mushrooms and their constituents have been widely reported. Lentinan, a type of polysaccharide found in shiitake mushrooms, has been shown to have strong anti-tumor effects in both animals and humans when administered orally or by injection. Lentinan is an effective treatment against various bacterial, viral, and parasitic infections, including AIDS. L-glutamine can also be used to treat AIDS, as studies have shown that it can inhibit HIV infections in cultured human T cells, and potentiate the effects of AZT against viral replication. The lignins in shiitake mushrooms have been shown to have antiviral and immunomodulating effects. Shiitake mushrooms contain compounds that can fight bacteria. These compounds are called centinamycins A and B, and they are classified as polyacetylene compounds. A compound found in shiitake mushrooms called Eritadenine can lower cholesterol and also has antiviral properties.
is a species in the onion genus, Allium. Garlic belongs to the onion family, Allium, and is a species within that genus.
Garlic is a plant in the Allium sativum family and is widely respected. Garlic is a plant that originates from Central Asia. It is one of the earliest cultivated plants and is used for both culinary and medicinal purposes. elderberry has been shown to be effective in treating infections and wounds. This is because of its antibacterial properties, which can help to ease various diseases, such as diarrhea, rheumatism, diabetes, and heart disease. It has antithrombotic, blood pressure lowering, and hypolipidemic properties that are beneficial to the cardiovascular system, particularly in the prevention and treatment of atherosclerosis. properties that protect against viruses, oxidation, and cancer have also been demonstrated. Organic sulfur compounds found in garlic may cause cells to stop dividing and then die, without affecting normal cells. The mechanisms for these activities have been found to possibly be the modulation of NF-κB and the alteration of the microtubule network. These findings suggest that garlic-derived sulfur compounds could be effective in cancer prevention and treatment, as well as boosting immunity. The two most-studied chemical constituents of garlic are allicin (which is produced from the alliin in fresh garlic, by the enzymatic action of alliinase, when garlic is chopped) and ajoene. Diallyl disulfide, triallyl trisulfide, S-allylmercaptocysteine, and thiacremonone are all bioactive components.
is a tropical plant of the ginger family. Turmeric (?? ji?ng huáng; Curcumae Longae Rhizoma, Curcuma longa, Zingiberaceae) is a plant of the ginger family that grows in tropical climates.
A plant in the ginger family called Curcuma longa is mostly used as a spice to give flavor to food. The mainactive ingredient in turmeric is curcumin, which gives it its yellow color, distinctive flavor, and also contributes to its health benefits. Since curcuminoids are found in C. longa, this suggests that curcuminoids may have potential as a treatment for various diseases and ailments.
C. longa rhizome, known as ji?ng huáng in Chinese, has been used as a safe and non-toxic traditional medicine in Asia for centuries to treat a variety of conditions, including diarrhea, intermittent fever, edema, bronchitis, colds, worms, leprosy, kidney inflammation, and cystitis. It is also used as an anticancer treatment. Curcumin’s unique structure also makes it biologically distinctive. Modern research has confirmed that turmeric has many benefits, including reducing inflammation and oxidative stress.
Many studies have reported that curcumin is effective against various cancer cell lines, including those that are hormone-dependent, hormone-independent, and multidrug-resistant. It also can inhibit cellular proliferation and enhance apoptosis. Curcumin had the following effects on prostate cancer cells: increasing the expression of the androgen receptor (AR), AP-1, cyclin D1, NF-κB and cAMP response element binding (CREB) protein, and EGFR-TK activity. Some curcumin derivatives have shown to be more effective in fighting prostate cancer than curcumin itself. These derivatives work by causing degradation of the androgen receptor. The benefits of curcumin come from its ability to modulate or activate a number of target proteins, including transcription factors, receptors, and growth factors.
One advantage of curcumin that makes it effective as an antitumor and chemopreventive agent is that it has different effects on normal cells than it does on tumor cells. Although it is not clear why curcumin selectively kills tumor cells and not normal cells, there are some possible explanations: (1) Tumor cells take up curcumin more readily than normal cells, (2) Tumor cells generally have lower levels of glutathione than normal cells, which makes them more susceptible to curcumin, and (3) Most tumor cells express a constitutively active form of NF-κB, which helps them to survive.
In 1985, Kuttan et al. pioneered the study of curcumin’s anticancer activity in living mice with Dalton’s lymphoma. Extensive studies have been done to investigate the effects of curcumin on cancer prevention and treatment. The results of their study showed that curcumin has the potential to be effective against many types of cancer, including lymphoma/ leukemia, colon, esophageal, liver, lung, oral, skin, breast, and prostate cancers, in animal and tumor models.
They suggest that curcumin may help regulate cancer-related genes. Clinical trials of curcumin in cancer patients have been conducted worldwide for many years and suggest that curcumin may help regulate cancer-related genes. Curcumin has been shown to be effective against various types of cancer in humans, including myeloma, colorectal, pancreatic, and prostate cancer. In a recent study, curcumin was given to people with pancreatic cancer that didn’t respond to gemcitabine. The study showed that it is safe and possible to give this combination of chemotherapy to pancreatic cancer patients.
Oyster mushroom (Pleurotus ostreatus)
This common edible mushroom contains natural statins that help regulate blood cholesterol. It is commonly found in grocery stores in temperate climates.
Mushrooms that are used for herbal medicine and other medicinal purposes are continually demonstrating that they can be effective in treating diseases like cancer. You can prevent chronic diseases from happening by eating these foods regularly.