Indian Medicinal Mushrooms as a Source of Antioxidant and Antitumor Agents

Medicinal mushrooms occurring in South India namely Ganoderma lucidum, Phellinus rimosus, Pleurotus florida and Pleurotus pulmonaris possessed profound antioxidant and antitumor activities. This indicated that these mushrooms would be valuable sources of antioxidant and antitumor compounds. Investigations also revealed that they had significant antimutagenic and anticarcinogenic activities. Thus, Indian medicinal mushrooms are potential sources of antioxidant and anticancer compounds. However, intensive and extensive investigations are needed to exploit their valuable therapeutic use

MEDICINAL MUSHROOM BIOACTIVES: POTENTIAL SOURCES FOR ANTI-CANCER DRUG DEVELOPMENT

Mushrooms represent a major yet largely untapped source of therapeutically useful bioactive compounds. Despite mushrooms were in use since antiquity in traditional folk medicine attempts to isolate their bioactive components and to elucidate their medicinal properties have started only recently. Many pharmaceutical substances with unique properties were recently extracted from mushrooms and made their way all over the world. A number of medicinal mushrooms have been identified to possess anticancer effects recently. Some of the well-known examples are Lentinan from Lentinus edodes, Krestin from Trametes versicolor, Ganopoly from Ganoderma lucidum and Schizophyllan from Schizophyllum commune. We investigated the anticancer activities of a number of medicinal mushrooms in our laboratory. Some of the recent scientific evdences on the anticancer activities of Ganoderma lucidum, Phellinus rimosus, and Fomitopsis pinicola are discussed in this short review

Bioactive extract of mycelia biomass of Ganoderma lucidum protects doxorubicin induced cardiomyopathy

Cardiotoxicity induced by anticancer drug; doxorubicin (DOX) is a limiting factor for its prolonged use in chemotherapy. No effective drug is currently available to prevent DOX induced cardiomyopathy. Ganoderma lucidum is highly valued medicinal mushroom used in traditional medicine. Mycelia biomasses are considered as alternate sources of mushroom bioactive compounds. We examined the effect of bioactive extract of G. lucidum mycelia biomass (GLME) to prevent cardiotoxicity induced by DOX in rats using a cumulative dose 18 mg/kg body wt. GLME was administered to animals at doses of 250 and 500 mg/kg body wt. once daily for five days prior to DOX administration and continued for three more days. Animals were sacrificed 24 h after the last dose of drug. Activities of creatine kinase (CK), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), endogenous antioxidant status, oxidative stress markers, electrocardiograph (ECG) and haematological parameters were evaluated. DOX administration drastically elevated CK, LDH, myocardial peroxidation and oxidative stress and significantly lowered endogenous antioxidant activity. GLME administration attenuated elevated levels of CK, LDH and oxidative stress and also ameliorated alterations in haematological and ECG parameters. Results revealed that bioactive extract of G. lucidum mycelia imparted significant protection against DOX induced cardiomyopathy suggesting the potential therapeutic significance of G. lucidum mycelia bioactives to alleviate DOX induced cardiomyopathy

Antidiabetic Properties of Medicinal Mushrooms with Special Reference to Phellinus Species: A Review

Diabetes remains the major public health challenge to the 21st century. It is strongly related to lifestyle changes. Most chronic complications of diabetes are macrovascular and microvascular diseases resulting from the existing hyperglycemic status. After the failure of first-line therapy, which is based on diet modifications and exercise, conventional treatment using antihyperglycemic agents with different mechanisms of action will be implemented for type II diabetes in modern medicine. Higher Basidiomycetes mushrooms are highly praised for their nutritional value and pharmacological properties. They have long been used traditionally for the maintenance of health, prevention and treatment of various human ailments. Reports indicate the beneficial effects of medicinal mushrooms in diabetes treatments. However, scientific evidence are insufficient to make definitive conclusions on the efficacy of individual medicinal mushrooms. Mushrooms belong to the genera Phellinus such as Phellinus linteus, Phellinus ribis, Phellinus rimosus and Phellinus igniarius. They possess a significant hypoglycemic effect in experimental diabetic models. However, well-designed controlled clinical trials are needed to establish their safety and bioactivity. </jats:sec

Bioactive extract of mycelia biomass of Ganoderma lucidum protects doxorubicin induced cardiomyopathy

587-596Cardiotoxicity induced by anticancer drug; doxorubicin (DOX) is a limiting factor for its prolonged use in chemotherapy. No effective drug is currently available to prevent DOX induced cardiomyopathy. Ganoderma lucidum is highly valued medicinal mushroom used in traditional medicine. Mycelia biomasses are considered as alternate sources of mushroom bioactive compounds. We examined the effect of bioactive extract of G. lucidum mycelia biomass (GLME) to prevent cardiotoxicity induced by DOX in rats using a cumulative dose 18 mg/kg body wt. GLME was administered to animals at doses of 250 and 500 mg/kg body wt. once daily for five days prior to DOX administration and continued for three more days. Animals were sacrificed 24 h after the last dose of drug. Activities of creatine kinase (CK), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), endogenous antioxidant status, oxidative stress markers, electrocardiograph (ECG) and haematological parameters were evaluated. DOX administration drastically elevated CK, LDH, myocardial peroxidation and oxidative stress and significantly lowered endogenous antioxidant activity. GLME administration attenuated elevated levels of CK, LDH and oxidative stress and also ameliorated alterations in haematological and ECG parameters. Results revealed that bioactive extract of G. lucidum mycelia imparted significant protection against DOX induced cardiomyopathy suggesting the potential therapeutic significance of G. lucidum mycelia bioactives to alleviate DOX induced cardiomyopathy