Mushrooms are no longer just the stuff of fairytales. While they may have a "magical" aura about them, they are now beginning to receive much deserved attention for their very real medicinal qualities. Like many nutraceuticals, medicinal mushrooms may lack "sex appeal" and consumer awareness of their health benefits, but as more research emerges, companies are beginning to invest more time and money in what may be the last great frontier in herbal medicine.


Mushrooms: An Historical Perspective
The medical community is no stranger to mushrooms because they are fungi and from this fungi come several antibiotics. Paul Stamets, mycologist, director of Fungi Perfecti Laboratories and the Mycomedicinals® product line, Olympia, WA, and the author of five books-including Growing Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms-explained the connection."The medical community recognizes that fungi are sources of great medicines, which comes as no surprise because we have gotten most of our antibiotics from fungi," he said. "However, there is a huge mass of novel medicines and new knowledge not yet recognized because medicine in this country has been dominated by an English perspective." Mr. Stamets explained, "The English are known as being mycophobic, or having an unreasonable fear of fungi. Virtually all other countries in the world are mycophilic and have a long history of use of fungal medicine and mushrooms as medicinal foods. Further, because U.S. medical science is dominated by culture that evolved from England, there has been a prejudice against mushrooms, which has forestalled research."

Suzanne McNeary, director of marketing, Tradeworks, Brattleboro, VT, manufacturer of Maitake Gold 404™, explained medicinal mushrooms from a scientific perspective. "Most of the compounds found in mushrooms are classified as Host Defense Potentiators (HDP). These compounds include polysaccharides, polysaccharide peptides, nucleosides, triterpenoids, alkaloids, complex structures and other metabolites produced by mushrooms. By taking a closer look at the lifecycle of mushrooms the mystery of fungi and the logic of HDP effects are revealed. Quite literally, the mushroom is nature's expert in adapting to and resisting a host of challenges as they sit almost at the lowest rung in the ecosystem, thriving on decaying materials in a very hostile environment," she said.

"The mushroom acquires food outside its cells," she went on. "During the vegetative stage, or the mycelial stage in the mushroom life cycle, digestive enzymes are excreted to digest the food outside the cells. Since the mushroom needs to absorb the digested food, it must first deactivate any natural pathogens. The mushroom is also uniquely proficient at expelling undesirable chemicals and contaminants absorbed during the ingestion. Hence, in order for the mushroom to survive and thrive it must possess a remarkably aggressive, proactive and protective immune system." After all, Ms. McNeary said, mushrooms manage to grow in darkness and protect themselves from excessive moisture and microbes that would kill most green plants and disable many animals; therefore, it is not surprising that most of the studies on the health benefits of mushrooms on humans have focused on their immune enhancement properties.


Mushroom Issues: From Dosage To Standards
There are many issues to consider when it comes to medicinal mushrooms, say suppliers; these include dosage, processing and improving standards. Jeff Chilton, president, NAMMEX, Gibsons, British Columbia, Canada, supplier of a complete line of medicinal mushrooms, discussed mushrooms' long history and dosage concerns. "The beauty of mushrooms is that I consider them to be one of the first nutraceuticals. We are dealing with organisms that have been used as food for thousands of years. You cannot overdose on mushrooms and you can easily incorporate them into the diet both in food and supplement form."

In terms of processing, Donna Noonan, marketing manager of mushroom supplier Maitake Products, Inc., Ridgefield Park, NJ, said, "Growing mushrooms under the proper conditions is extremely important. For example, it has been shown that the growing conditions dramatically affect our Maitake D-Fraction®'s beta glucan content." Another issue, she said, is that of extraction. "Some mushrooms are not absorbable in the whole form, which is why extracts of these mushrooms are considered. It is important to note the extraction process used, as some mushrooms are water-soluble and some are alcohol-soluble."

Going "organic" is also preferable, according to Fungi Perfecti's Mr. Stamets. "One should be sure that the mushroom supplier is certified organic because mushrooms collected or grown near heavily polluted cities or environments or grown on ingredients near these environments will concentrate heavy metals," he said.

David Law, president and CEO, I.G. International (IGI) and CFO, Gourmet Mushrooms, Inc. (GMI), Sebastopol, CA, which supplies mushrooms to both the culinary and nutraceuticals industries, discussed related issues. Also paramount, he said, is batch to batch consistency and microbiological testing. Additionally, the material should be free of contamination, insecticides and herbicide.


Health Benefits
Investigation into the therapeutic properties of mushrooms has been underway in Asian countries for several years. Most studies point to immune enhancement/maintenance and with that the treatment/prevention of a host of other diseases associated with immunity.

Annika Rockwell, C.N., general manager and sales and scientific coordinator, Quality of Life Labs, Purchase, NY, manufacturer of ImmuneForce (containing Active Hexose Correlated Compound-AHCC), said there are various types of medicinal mushrooms showing different effects on immune system related disorders. "Cancer, AIDS and liver disorders (specifically hepatitis C) seem to be very well helped by medicinal mushrooms," she said. "Every mushroom has a list of conditions and symptoms it can help and the science is very strong on immune markers. Providing a little background on AHCC, she said, "AHCC is a proprietary hybridization of approximately five different medicinal mushrooms. This combination has the ability to reduce mylosuppression (reduction of white blood cells), which occurs during chemotherapy. It also has the ability to reduce tumor growth." (For more information on AHCC, see sidebar on page 56.)

Tradeworks' Ms. McNeary singled out Maitake, comparing it with the likes of other drugs derived from mushrooms. So far, she said, three different anticancer drugs extracted from mushrooms have been approved by the Japanese government; they are Lentinan®, which is derived from Shiitake, Schizophyllan, which is derived from Suehirotake and PSK, which is derived from Kawaratake or Turkey Tail. "Although PSK is the world's all-time best selling cancer drug," said Ms. McNeary, "it is Maitake mushroom that possesses renowned anti-tumor activity that may be superior to any current mushroom-derived anticancer drugs." In one experiment, she said, Maitake produced an 87% shrinkage in tumors in mice, compared to Lentinan (54%) and PSK (7%). More recent studies on the maitake extract (beta 1/6, 1/3 glucan) produced an 85% shrinkage in tumors in mice compared with 30% from Mitomycin-C, a chemotherapeutic drug.

Katie Ferren, marketing director of Optipure brand, Chemco Industries, Los Angeles, CA, manufacturer of Maitake BetaPure™ and Maitake BetaPreme™, said medicinal mushrooms not only support immune health but also cardiovascular health in terms of cholesterol lowering and hypertension, diabetes and skin health. Discussing cancer prevention, Ms. Ferren said, one must be careful in associating medicinal mushrooms' capabilities with cancer. "We have seen some promising research results but obviously on a consumer level you want to avoid the word cancer. I think it needs to be further studied, especially in humans," she said, adding, "Immune enhancing supplements definitely tend to be tested on some controversial diseases such as cancer or AIDS because that community is looking for something that is alternative. Cancer drugs are not up to the place they should or could be at this time and as a result people are willing to try alternative things."

Fungi Perfecti's Mr. Stamets explained the modes of action of mushrooms on cancer cells and tumors. "In terms of cancer, mushrooms are used both as immunomodulators with natural killer (NK) cells and also as tumor retardants," he said. "In vitro a lot of mushroom constituents will prevent the cancer tumors from growing over baseline. But in vivo the NK cells can attack the cancer. These are two different modes of action that are highly complementary."

Advancing research, however, will be difficult, said NAMMEX's Mr. Chilton. "No one wants to spend the money on clinical tests because they are so expensive and in the end the science will be shared with everybody," he commented.


Food Vs. Supplement
Most experts agree that mushrooms can harbor medicinal benefits as a food but the benefits are not as pronounced as they are with supplements. There is also the issue of edibility, as some of the mushrooms are completely inedible or taste too horrible to consume.

Quality of Life Labs' Ms. Rockwell explained both factors. "When you consume a mushroom in a food, usually it is a side dish or a garnish. You are certainly not taking them in any therapeutic dose, so you are not going to get the benefit. Not to mention, some of the medicinal mushrooms are just not edible," she offered. "The true advantage of having a capsule form is that the active constituents in the mushroom have been isolated and concentrated so that in one capsule you are consuming the equivalent of maybe 100 bowls of mushrooms."

Melissa Northway, director of marketing, Atlas World USA, Los Angeles, CA, manufacturer of Agaricus Bio®, said there is new thinking within the mushroom industry, whether you are consuming a fresh or dried product, that products include all four stages of a mushroom's lifecycle. "Most mushroom products use only the fruitbody stage, which is the end stage. However, each life stage is potentially important for treating different illnesses," she said.

Most of the research, Optipure's Ms. Ferren said, has been on products that are extracts and it is only those products that should be consumed to receive health benefits. "If you apply the studies, you need to do an apples to apples comparison. For example, if you want to benefit your cholesterol you need to take the same standardized extract of maitake that has been studied for a better chance of duplicating the results in the research."


Combination And Single Mushroom Products
So far the research on mushroom combinations pales in comparison to the number of studies that exist on single mushrooms. However, using a combination of mushrooms, in theory, might have potential in waging a broad-based attack on an array of conditions.

Ms. Ferren said the vast majority of studies she has seen tested individual mushrooms. "I have only seen a couple of tests with both shiitake and maitake, so I don't think there is enough research at this point to say whether taking them singly or in combination is better."

Offering a different perspective was Mr. Stamets of Fungi Perfecti. "Ingesting a panoply of polypore mushrooms not only in natural form but also grown under sterile conditions on rice gives you a universe of immunomodulatory agents that can be quite effective in enhancing and improving health. Again, it goes to the whole is greater than the sum of its parts."

Ms. McNeary suggested that mushrooms, particularly a combination of medicinal mushrooms from a variety of different phenotypes (grown in different locations and environments), could provide immense benefits. "Each mushroom type produces a specific set of metabolites capable of dealing with the set of microbes that coexist in that specific environment. By combining a host of medicinal mushroom species, the immune system receives multiple stimuli, which in turn awakens the bodies' natural defenses," she explained. "This is much like providing the immune system with a diverse arsenal of proactive and defensive soldiers, each highly specialized and independently effective in defending the body. Theoretically, once the immune system is exposed to the invading pathogen it is then equipped or programmed to react more strongly to the same invader the next time. A physician has remarked that in this way medicinal mushroom supplements provide a '24-hour nautilus' for the immune system."


Global Consumer Awareness
Consumer awareness for medicinal mushrooms struggles in the U.S. versus other parts of the world, particularly Asia. However, current studies provide great hope and communication of health benefits is slowly starting to penetrate the American mainstream.

Discussing the beginnings of consumer awareness for mushrooms in the Western world was Mr. Chilton of NAMMEX. "When I first started my business in 1988, literally no one knew about the medicinal properties of mushrooms. It took a lot of years of getting the literature out to people, helping to promote books on mushrooms and convincing manufacturers that there is a medicinal side to mushrooms," he said, adding, "It has been a snowball effect. Within the last five years there are a lot more people talking about the medicinal qualities of mushrooms. Even advertising by some companies has really brought mushrooms into the light."

The downside, said Mr. Chilton, is that medicinal mushrooms do not even break the top 25 list of herbs right now. "Mushrooms are a huge part of life in Asia not only as food but also as supplements." However, he said, things are changing. "Up until the mid 1980s the U.S. had maybe one edible mushroom on the market and now we have five or six different mushrooms, so we have really come a long way and people are becoming a lot more accepting of mushrooms as food and as supplements," he said.

Offering an interesting point of view was Ms. Ferren of Optipure. "Because so many people think of mushrooms as being edible, a lot of times they have trouble transferring that over to taking them in a supplement. This is the same kind of problem you see with green tea when consumers say, 'Why can't I just drink green tea?'" In terms of appeal, Ms. Ferren said, the acceptance of mushrooms is in the eyes of the beholder. "I think it is a matter of texture and consistency for people that don't like the way mushrooms look and feel. On top of that, the fact that mushrooms are fungi does not really help. But obviously, a lot of people like eating mushrooms, so I think it is a matter of personal preference."

Ms. Northway of Atlas said that mushrooms have been used for centuries in most places in the world and are gaining more acceptance in the U.S. "I really think mushrooms will be the next big thing. In fact, I have talked to doctors who feel that mushrooms will be food as medicine for the future," she offered.

Mr. Stamets said awareness is skyrocketing. "The mycophobia of the past is quickly fading away in favor of mycophilia. As the 1960s and 1970s generation starts to age they are much more mycofriendly than their parents ever were," he said, adding, "Physicians and medical researchers don't seem to have the same prejudice against mushrooms as they do against plants and medical scientists have realized that fungi have wonderfully powerful medicines so why wouldn't mushrooms have them as well."

Awareness is growing slowly in the U.S., said Ms. McNeary, due to the increasing interest in beta glucans. "More and more people are hearing about beta glucans and their stimulatory effects on the immune system," she said. "Interest has peaked because immunity and cellular protection are important issues for health conscious consumers and for those individuals that are dealing with serious health issues." She continued, "In Japan and China people eat mushrooms almost every day and most types of cancer are uncommon in those countries. It is unclear as to whether there is a correlation but many people believe that mushrooms along with soy, green tea, seafood and other staples of the Asian diet are believed to translate into good health and longevity."