Mushrooms: ganoderma lucidum

The mushrooms: ganoderma lucidum

Ganoderma lucidum (Curt. ex Fr.) Karst. Glanzender Lackporling Ganoderme luisant, Ganoderme laque, Polypore lucide, Lacquered Bracket. Fruit body usually stalked. Bracket 10–25cm in diameter, 2–3cm thick, fan- or kidney-shaped, laterally attached, concentrically grooved and zoned ochraceous to orange brown, later purple-brown to blackish, and like the stem conspicuously glossy as if varnished. Stem up to 250 x 10–30mm, dark brown, glossy. Tubes 0.5–2cm long. Pores 4–5 per mm, circular, whitish then cream, finally tobacco brown, darkening on bruising when fresh. Spores rusty, ellipsoid-ovate with truncate end, 7–13 x 6–8um. Habitat on roots of deciduous trees. Season all year. Rare. Not edible. Distribution, America and Europe.

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Lingzhi

Linghzi is the name for one form of the mushroom Ganoderma lucidum, and its close relative Ganoderma tsugae, which grows in the northern Eastern Hemlock forests. These two species of bracket fungus have a worldwide distribution in both tropical and temperate geographical regions, including North and South America, Africa, Europe, and Asia, growing as a parasite or saprotroph on a wide variety of trees. Ganoderma lucidum enjoys special veneration in Asia, where it has been used in traditional Chinese medicine as a herbal medicine for more than 4,000 years, making it one of the oldest mushrooms known to have been used in medicine. Similar species of Ganoderma have been found growing in the Amazon ....

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Red Mushrooms
Ancient Science, Modern Miracle

What are Red Mushrooms?

Red Mushrooms (scientific name: Ganoderma Lucidum or generally called "Ganoderma"), a family of more than 200 mushroom species, are good for our health. Of these, 6 species have a particularly high therapeutic effect.

Amazing Facts about Ganoderma
Historical Background
The 2 Main Products of Ganoderma
The Red Mushrooms and Ganotherapy

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Reishii Medicinal Mushroom: Ganoderma applanatum

Reishii is the most prominent and ancient medicinal mushroom in the world. It has been used in Asia for thousand of years. Ganoderma is used both as a general immune-stimulating tonic and as a remedy to treat a variety of illnesses, including hypertension, arthritis, asthma, anorexia, gastritis, bronchitis, high cholesterol, hepatitis, cardiovascular problems, and cancers (esophegal, throat). It’s various constituents include Beta D glucans (responsible for its immune-stimulating properties), ganoderic acids (responsible for its cholesterol and cardiovascular effects and polysaccharides (responsible for its antitumour activity against sarcoma 180). The mechanism(s) of action may be attributed to the antioxidant activity of the mushroom or to its immunomodulation activity ...

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A mushroom (Ganoderma capense) lectin with spectacular thermostability, potent mitogenic activity on splenocytes, and antiproliferative activity toward tumor cells

An 18-kDa lectin, with an N-terminal sequence displaying slight similarity to some lectins and fungal immunomodulatory proteins, was isolated from the mushroom Ganoderma capense (Lloyd) Teng. It exhibited more potent mitogenic activity than that of concanavalin A toward mouse splenocytes, and antiproliferative activity toward leukemia (L1210 and M1) cells and hepatoma (HepG2) cells. The isolation procedure entailed ion exchange chromatography on Q-Sepharose, fast protein liquid chromatography (FPLC)-ion exchange chromatography on Mono S, and FPLC-gel filtration on Superdex 75. d(+)-galactose and d(+)-galactosamine specifically inhibited the hemagglutinating activity of the lectin. The hemagglutinating activity of the lectin was not affected over the temperature range 0–100 °C and after exposure to 100 °C for 60 min. The activity was stable in the pH range of 4–11, and after incubation with solutions of various chlorides (from 3.125 to 50 mM) including NaCl, KCl, CaCl2, MgCl2, ZnCl2, MnCl2, and AlCl3. However, it was potentiated by 12.5–50 mM FeCl3. The lectin was devoid of HIV-1 reverse transcriptase inhibitory and antifungal activities ...

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Ganoderma lucidum (‘Lingzhi’), a Chinese medicinal mushroom: biomarker responses in a controlled human supplementation study

Sissi Wachtel-Galor, Brian Tomlinson and Iris F. F. Benzie

Lingzhi (Ganoderma lucidum) is a woody mushroom highly regarded in traditional medicine and is widely consumed in the belief that it promotes health and longevity, lowers the risk of cancer and heart disease and boosts the immune system. However, objective scientific validation of the putative health benefits of Lingzhi in human subjects is lacking, and issues of possible toxicity must be addressed. The present double-blinded, placebo-controlled, cross-over intervention study investigated the effects of 4 weeks Lingzhi supplementation on a range of biomarkers for antioxidant status, CHD risk, DNA damage, immune status, and inflammation, as well as markers of liver and renal toxicity. It was performed as a follow-up to a study that showed that antioxidant power in plasma increased after Lingzhi ingestion, and that 10 d supplementation was associated with a trend towards an improved CHD biomarker profile. In the present study, fasting blood and urine from healthy, consenting adults (n 18; aged 22 – 52 years) was collected before and after 4 weeks supplementation with a com- mercially available encapsulated Lingzhi preparation (1·44 g Lingzhi/d; equivalent to 13·2 g fresh mushroom/d) or placebo. No significant change in any of the variables was found, although a slight trend toward lower lipids was again seen, and antioxidant capacity in urine increased. The results showed no evidence of liver, renal or DNA toxicity with Lingzhi intake, and this is reassuring. The present study of the effects in healthy, well-nourished subjects provides useful, new scientific data that will support controlled intervention trials using at- risk subjects in order to assess the therapeutic effect of Lingzhi in the promotion of healthy ageing ....

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Reishi / Lingzhi (Ganoderma tsugae, Ganoderma lucidum)

Ganoderma tsugae, the hemlock reishi mushroom is quite common in central Maine and elsewhere in the northeast. It grows on dead or dying eastern hemlock, a very common tree. It is very showy with it's bright red colors and it's varnished look that darkens as it matures. It contains protein-bound polysaccharides known to have medicinal properties. Ganoderma lucidum looks practically identical, grows on hardwoods, but is very rare in this area.

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