Reishi mushroom Ganoderma lucidum,Marvelous Lucky Fungus from Orient World.
Contents
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- Ganoderma lucidum:the Reishi mushroom botanical information.
- What is Reishi and Varieties?What is Reishi Mushroom Extract?.
- Ganoderma lucidum:Constituents and Phytochemicals.
- Mechanism of Action:How it Works and Medical Properties.
- History and Fame of Reishi Mushroom.
- The Most Common Uses of Reishi Mushrooms.
- Benefits of Reishi Mushrooms:System Class and Alphabetic Order.
- Applications and Benefit Note On Ganoderma lucidum:Reishi Mushroom.
- Ganoderma lucidum or Reishi Mushroom as King of Health Foods.
- Suggestions and Administrations.
- Ganoderma lucidum Pharmacology and Application.
- Ganoderma lucidum:Research update.
Ganoderma lucidum Pharmacology and Application.:
1).Reishi and Immunity:
A protein named Ling Zhi-8 (LZ-8) was isolated from Ganoderma lucidum extract and shown to have strong immunomodulatory activity. It was stimulatatory to to production of both human monocytes and human T-cells (types of white blood cells). The effect is better termed immunomodulatory rather than immunostimulatory because it also prevents excess immune activity as shown by increasing the survival time in allogeneic skin graphs and organ transplants into mice.
Miracle Mushrooms helps the body remove the build-up of toxins and allows the body's natural immune system to strengthen itself. Its antitumor and immune enhancing properties, along with no cytotoxicity, raise the possibility that lingzhi could be effective in preventing oxidative damage and resulting disease. Using agarose gel electrophoresis, the potential of lingzhi extract as a radioprotector and antioxidant defense against oxygen radical-mediated damage was evaluated. The results clearly demonstrate that the hot-water extract of lingzhi shows good radioprotective ability, as well as protection against DNA damage induced by metal-catalyzed Fenton reactions and UV irradiation. The data suggest that lingzhi merits investigation as a potential preventive agent in humans.
2).Reishi and Cancer:
Ikekawa et al. (1968) first reported on the efficacy of soluble extracts from Ganoderma in inhibiting transplanted sarcoma 180 in mice. This host-dependent antitumor activity has been subsequently confirmed to be from the polysaccharide fractions of Ganoderma. Multiple similar studies subsequently confirms this observation and antitumor efficacy of Ganoderma has been demonstrated from various species, at different stages of growth and using different solvents for extraction and different routes of administration. Antitumor activity has been demonstrated in vitro as well as in syngeneic tumor systems in animals.
From a theoretical point of view, it is important to note as those found in Ganoderma have undergone rigorous clinical trials, including Lentinan, Sizofilan, PSK (Krestin), and PSP. Since it is now increasingly clear that immunostimulatory bioactivity from most beta-glucan based compounds function via a similar beta-glucan receptor, it has been possible to hypothesize that Ganoderma polysaccharides should function similarly . Clinical effects of various glucan based BRM's should therefore be comparable. Results from Lentinan, Sizofilan, PSK and PSP human trials demonstrated the efficacy of these glucan BRM's in prolonging survival in recurrent or advanced gastric and colon cancer, lung cancer and gynecologic cancers. Data from such bioactively comparable compounds all suggest improved quality of life or survival for cancer patients may be possible with Ganoderma supplementation.
Whilst some efficacy of Ganoderma in cancer is undoubted, it remains important to specify the various indications and cite the evidence to support its use. This can be discussed under four different circumstances. In clinical studies Chang at Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center reported that applications of Ganoderma should be studied and considered for (1) chemoprophylaxis of cancer in individuals at high metastasis or recurrence of cancer (3) palliation of cancer related cachexia and pain and (4) adjunctive use with concurrent chemotherapy to reduce side-effects, maintain leukocyte counts and allow a more optimal dosing of chemo or radiotherapeuties. Another way of looking at Ganoderma's use in cancer has four parts:
A. As a supplement during chemotherapy or radiotherapy to reduce side-effects such as fatigue, loss of appetite, hair loss, bone marrow suppression and risk of infection. There are studies demonstrating Ganoderma's efficacy against fatigue, hair loss and bone marrow suppression and the presence of similar clinical evidence for other glucan BRM's applied in the setting of cancer chemotherapy or radiotherapy lends further support to the supplementation of Ganoderma in combination with cytotoxic cancer therapies. The recommended dose should be in the range of five to ten grams of fruiting body or equivalent per day.
B. As a supplement for cancer patients to enhance survival and reduce likelihood of metastasis. While only anecdotal data exists that Ganoderma supplementation may enhance survival of cancer patients, this survival advantage has been demonstrated for a number of comparable glucan BRM'S. Specifically, Lentinan use in advantage at 1, 2, 3 and 4 years in a randomized control trial. Sizofilan given together with chemotherapy enhanced survival of cervical cancers irrespective of stage in a prospective randomized controlled trial , significantly enhanced survival (P less than 0.01) in lung cancer patients and improved five year survival of head and neck cancer from 73.4 to 86.7% was noted in another small study. More appropriate for comparison to Ganoderma is perhaps and PSK or PSP, which are orally administered. Mitomi et al. (1994) found significantly improved survival and disease-free survival (P=0.013) in resected colorectal cancer given PSK supplementation over three years when compared to control in a multi-center randomized controlled trial. In an animal model, Ganoderma has been demonstrated to effectively prevent metastasis, and these results are comparable to those of Lentinan. Other glucan BRM's have been demonstrated to effectively prevent or suppress pulmonary metastasis of methylcholanthrene-induced sarcomas, human prostate cancer DU145M, and lymphatic metastasis of mouse leukemia P388. The recommended dose should be five to ten grams or more of fruiting body or equivalent per day, with a linear enhancement in efficacy expected up to 30 grams per day.
C. As a supplement for cancer patients to improve quality of life. Again, only anecdotal information exists for Ganoderma in this situation but other oral glucan derivatives such as PSP has been found to be useful in improving quality of life in cancer patients. Significantly, Ganoderma supplementation was noted to decrease pain in cancer patients. The recommended dose would be five to ten grams of fruiting body or equivalent per day.
D. As a supplement for the prevention of occurrence or recurrence of cancer. Since immune stimulation, especially Natural Killer (NK) and Cytotoxic Lymphocyte (CTL) activation may be effective in the immune prevention of cancer by enhanced immune surveillance, and Ganoderma has been demonstrated to enhance NK and CTL activity when administered orally, it is thus a candidate for demonstrated the efficacy of Ganoderma in the preventing the progression of microadenomatous growths in animals, and the efficacy of other glucan BRM's in primary and secondary cancer prevention have been similarly demonstrated in vitro, in vivo and in clinical trials.
In a very interesting report addressed the question of proper dose of Ganoderma for therapy. Since studies of human dosage were traditional and empiric a dose range was calculated using this data and pharmacokinetic principals. The calculations suggested that a (1) Ganoderma dried fruit body dose of 0.5 to 1 g per day for health maintenance (2) 2 to 5 g per day if there is chronic fatigue, stress, autoimmune, or other chronic health problems (3) 5 to 10 g per day for serious illness.
3).Reishi and Liver Disease:
A polysaccharide extract of Ganoderma lucidum was shown to be liver-protective against carbon tetrachloride poisoning in rat hepatocytes (liver tissue). In another study, when liver cirrhosis was induced in rats Ganoderma lucidum extract reduced the inflammation, necrosis and fibrosis significantly.
Hepatoprotective effect of GOO9 on CC4-induced hepatotoxicity in primary cultured rat hepatocyes.
4).Reishi and High Blood Pressure:
An active fraction was obtained from water simmered Ganoderma lucidum which was shown to be useful as an antihypertensive agent (something that lowers blood pressure). Ganoderma lucidum hypertensive component.
5).Reishi and HIV:
Over the past decade, substantial progress has been made in defining strategies for the treatment of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) disease, the cause of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) , where natural products can serve as a source of structurally novel chemicals that are worth investigating as specific inhibitors of HIV as well as its essential enzymes, protease (PR) and reverse transcriptase (RT).
Ganoderma lucidum is one of the valuable crude drugs, which has long been used in China and Japan as a traditional Chinese medicine or a folk medicine for the treatment of various kinds of diseases. Several biologically active triterpenes and sterols have been isolated from this mushroom and proved effective as cytotoxic, antiviral and anti-inflammatory agents. Besides, polysaccharides and glycoproteins possessing hypoglycemic and immunostimulant activities have also been isolated from its water extract. In the course of our continuing search for natural products as anti-HIV agents, the MEOH extract of the fruiting bodies was found to be moderately active against HIV-1 as well as its essential enzyme, protease (PR). Therefore this extract was selected for further fractionation. When subjected to bioassay-guided fractionation, the extract yielded several active compounds. This paper describes the isolation of thirteen compounds, and their inhibitory effects against HIV-1 and its enzyme PR.
Preliminary clinical reports and practitioner experience seems to indicate that its immunostimulating polysaccharides may make it useful for people who are HIV positive, as well as for those who have Epstein Barr Virus (EBV), an infectious virus that causes mononucleosis (Dharmandanda,1988).
6).Reishi as an Antioxidant and Anti-Allergen:
An antitumor polysaccharide extract of Ganoderma lucidum was found to have free-radical scavenging activity. It was active against both superoxide and hydroxyl radicals.Furthermore, lingzhi is found to be effective in treatment of typical dermatitis, bronchitis asthma, allergy rhinitis, chronic hepatitis etc.--problems related to allergic reactions. Lingzhi inhibits thrombi to facilitate medication absorption; it also has an additive effect that strengthens the prostate gland situated between the bladder and the urinary tract. It has the same effect on the early stage of diabetes mellitus. Bladder infection is accompanied by the usual thrombi formation. Treatments with lingzhi arrest the latter thus eliminating complications within a short period. Other clinical tests showed that administering lingzhi instead of insulin can reverse blood sugar level back to normal after one year.
7).Reishi and Old Age:
The ancient Chinese text Shen Nong Ben Jing volume 1 from about the year 500 states that Ganoderma lucidum is useful for enhancing vital energy, increasing thinking faculty and preventing forgetfulness. It can refresh the body and mind, delay aging and enable one to live long. It stabilizes one's mental condition. The importance of retaining memory into old age probably lies in the Taoist belief that sickness was caused by past transgressions and that the patient had to remember the transgressions, record them and then destroy the record. This belief placed a strong emphasis on memory in the maintenance of health and longevity.
Of great interest has been the recent reports from the United States indicating a possible central role for inflammation in the development of such diverse diseases as Alzheimer's Disease and Cardiovascular disease. This research has the possibility of linking some of the historical uses of Ganoderma in promoting longevity with contemporary Western scientific theory. The provocative connections are: (1) Ganoderma was used to prevent memory loss in old age (2) Ganoderma is anti-inflammatory, (3) inflammation is involved in the development of Alzheimer's disease (4) Alzheimer's disease appears to be ameliorated by chronic anti-inflammatory use.
In research in mice Stavinoha et al. (1991, 1996) found Ganoderma lucidum to be potent anti-inflammatory agent. The water extract of the fruiting body was active orally against both carrageenan induced inflammation and croton oil induced inflammation. The ethyl acetate extract was active as an anti-inflammatory agent both orally and topically. The active compound was isolated and identified. This compound is equivalent in anti-inflammatory activity to hydrocortisone. It does not show the typical side effects of steroids such as thymic involution nor appear to cause gastropathy which is the major side effect of the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs such as aspirin.
Inflammation and Alzheimer's disease: A number of indicators of active inflammation have been found in the Alzheimer's diseased brain. Unless inflammation is present there is no notable neurodegeneration or Alzheimer's signs and symptoms even in the presence of extensive neurofibrillary tangles and Amyloid B-peptide plaque deposition
8).Effect on hepatitis B:
Lingzhi has been shown to be effective in the treatment of hepatitis B resulting in the lowering of SGPT and SCOT levels to normal, and the sero-conversion of HBs antigen to HE, antibody. Extract of lingzhi when administered concurrently with glutathione against liver damage by carbon tetrachloride, proved to be beneficial against hepatic necrosis and hepatitis. It was also discovered that extract of lingzhi could probably augment the rate of toxin transformation and subsequent bile excretion, thereby acting as a liver detoxicant and protectant.
9).Effect on diabetes:
Extract of lingzhi has also been found to be effective in reducing the blood glucose level after two months of treatments. Ganoderan B was considered to enhance glucose utilization because it increased the plasma insulin level in normal and glucose loaded mice, but did not affect the insulin binding to isolated adipocytes. The hypoglycaemic activity of lingzhi is thus due to an increase of the plasma insulin level and an acceleration of glucose metabolism occurring not only in the peripheral tissues but also in the liver.
10).Effect on hypertension:
Lingzhi is also effective in lowering hypertensive blood pressure. This is due to the presence of lanostane derivatives especially ganoderic acids B, D, F, H, K, S and Y which exert their hypotensive activities.
11).Effect on acute myeloblastic leukaemia:
Acute myeloblastic leukaemic patients were treated with high doses of lingzhi (6 capsules 3 times a day) prior to chemotherapy and continued for a period of three months. The chemotherapy regimen consisting of cytarabine and daunorubicin was given on a monthly basis in order to induce remission. CNS prophylaxis was given with cranial irradiation. All the patients had a subjective response when lingzhi was included in their treatment regimen. Changes in their NBC, hemoglobin and platelet counts were either significant or very significant after 3 months of treatment. Despite the remission for the past 3 years, the long term prognosis seems encouraging.
12).Effect on nasopharyngeal carcinoma:
Five patients with stage III nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) were given 6 capsules of lingzhi 3 times a day for 1 week before radio- and chemotherapy and continued for a course of 8 months while they were given a complete course of irradiation lasting for 6 weeks. The chemotherapy regimen consisting of cyclophosphomide, lomustine, dannorubicin and vincristine was administered every month for a period of 4 months. Objective response occurred in all the NPC patients with very significant tumor shrinkage after 40 days of treatment with lingzhi in concurrence with radio- and chemotherapy. The tumors were completely regressed after 90 days of combined treatment and were in remission for the last three and a half years. It is conceivable that lingzhi plays an adjuvant role in combination with radio- and chemotherapy, thereby rendering the complete regression of the tumors. Since both polysaccharides' and organic germanium derived from lingzhi are not cytotoxic to tumor cells, the antitumor effect is attributable to induced immunopotentiation. As an immunopotentiator, lingzhi accelerates the production of interlukin-2 from helper T cells and potentiates the induction of different types of anti-tumor cells, such as NK cells and cytotoxic macrophages, in addition to the induction of interferon production. The patients felt more energetic, and had a better appetite and slept better. Nausea and vomiting were mild whereas stomatitis and sore throat were transient. Their pain was alleviated, and no other side effects were observed.
13).Effect on wound healing:
Three patients with diabetic wounds were healed between 15 to 22 days. This might be due to the glucan from the cell walls of lingzhi that could activate the fibroblast migration in order to achieve wound healing and tissue proliferation.
14).For treating sleeplessness, multi-dreams, palpitation, forgetfulness, lethargy and similar conditions due to deficiency of the heart-qi or heart-blood:
Combine lingzhi with longan aril, wild jujuba seeds and Oriental arborvitae seeds to supplement blood and qi, pacify the spirits and calm the nerves. If one feels stuffiness in chest or has cardiac pains due to deficiency in heart-blood or blood sluggishness, then combine lingzhi with safflowers, red sage roots, Chinese angelica roots and Chuanxiong. If one is having palpitation, losing sleep, or being annoyed easily, match lingzhi with red sage roots, ophipogon roots and lily, as a recipe to supplement blood and yin, to clear heat and calm the nerve.
15).For treating those deficienct of both qi and blood, looking pale and withering, having dizziness, feeling tired easily, or not enjoying foods:
Combine lingzhi with ginseng, white atractylodes rhizome, Chinese angelica roots, prepared rehmannia root, etc., as a recipe to supplement qi and nourish blood.
16).For treating deficiency of lung-qi, insistent coughing, shortness of breath, weak panting, tired voice, and heavy perspiration:
Combine lingzhi with magnolia vine fruits, chebula fruits and dangshen to supplement the lung and stop coughing. For those who pant easily because of deficiency of kidney-qi, combine lingzhi with ginseng, gecko and walnuts to strengthen qi and pacify the panting.
17).For recuperating from hypertension, chronic hepatitis, chronic tracheitis and asthma:
Decoct 4 g lingzhi, tangerine peel 2 g with lean pork. This is to be taken continuously. Or grind lingzhi into powder form and take 1 to 2 g each day for 10 days. Resume the process after two days' intermission.
Reference:
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- 1.Reishi mushroom Ganoderma lucidum,Marvelous Lucky Fungus from Orient World.
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