Medicinal mushrooms have an established history of use in traditional and ancient therapies. Contemporary research has validated and documented much of the ancient knowledge. In the past three decades, the interdisciplinary field of science that studies medicinal mushrooms has demonstrated the potent and unique properties of compounds extracted from a range of mushroom species. Modern clinical practice in Japan, China, Korea, Russia, and several other countries rely on mushroom-derived preparations.
Ancient oriental traditions have stressed the importance of several mushroom species, especially the lingzhi or reishi mushroom (Ganoderma lucidum) and shiitake mushroom (Lentinus edodes). Mushrooms have also played an important role in the treatment of ailments affecting rural populations of eastern European countries. The most important species in these countries were Inonotus obliquus (Pers.:Fr.) or chaga, Fomitopsis officinalis (Vill.:Fr.) Bond. et Singer (Wood Conk or Agaricon), Piptoporus betulinus (Bull.:Fr.) P.Karst. (Birch Polypore), and Fomes fomentarius (Fr.:Fr) or tinder bracket. These species were used in the treatment of gastrointestinal disorders, various forms of cancers, bronchial asthma, night sweats, etc. There is also a long history of traditional use of mushrooms as curatives in Mesoamerica (especially for species of the genus Psilocybe), in Africa (Yoruba populations in Nigeria and Benin), Algeria, and Egypt. A very special role was found in fly agaric (Amanita muscaria; L.:Fr.;Pers.) in Siberia and Tibetan shamanism, Buddhism, and Celtic myths.
Meanwhile, mushrooms comprise an extremely abundant and diverse world of fungi. The number of mushroom species on Earth is currently estimated at a hundred and fifty thousand, yet perhaps only 10 percent (approximately fifteen thousand named species) are known to science. Mushrooms are being evaluated for their nutritional value and acceptability as well as for their pharmacological properties. They make up a vast and yet largely untapped source of powerful new pharmaceutical products. In particular, and most importantly for modern medicine, mushrooms present an unlimited source of polysaccharides and polysaccharide–protein complexes with anticancer and immunostimulating properties. Many, if not all, higher basidiomycetes mushrooms contain biologically active polysaccharides in their fruit bodies, cultured mycelia, and cultured broth. The data on mushroom polysaccharides today include 670 species and intraspecific taxa from 182 genera of higher hetero- and homobasidiomycetes.
Polysaccharides with antitumor and immunostimulating properties are particularly important for modern medicine. Several of the mushroom polysaccharide compounds have proceeded through Phase I, II, and III clinical trials and are used extensively and successfully in Asia to treat various cancers and other diseases. A total of 126 medicinal functions are thought to be produced by medicinal mushrooms and fungi including antitumor, immunomodulating, antioxidant, radical scavenging, cardiovascular, anti-hypercholesterolemia, antiviral, antibacterial, anti-parasitic, antifungal, detoxification, hepatoprotective, and antidiabetic effects.
The Fungal Pharmacy begins with a short historical perspective on how mushrooms have been used through time and in cultures from ancient Greece and Rome to the Far East and beyond. Many of the species discussed are found throughout the boreal forests of North America, Europe, and Asia. Robert Rogers has researched the unique properties of various fungi used in ancient times in these parts of the world and incorporated their contributions into the text.
Rogers explores the diverse uses of mushrooms, ranging from those that inspire musical compositions to those that have application in biological fuel cells. Medical research of fungi exhibiting in vivo and in vitro activity on bacteria, viruses, and pathogenic fungi is extensive and includes a number of both edible and poisonous species with the potential for present and future research. Mycoremediation, which could help reduce toxic materials presently related to disposal facilities, helps decontaminate and minimize road and farm runoff, creates buffer zones, reduces agricultural waste, reduces pollution in watersheds, reduces the risk of forest fire, and cleans up contaminated pathogenic bacteria such as Escherichia coli. The author pays special attention to the use of fungi to clean up the contamination produced by the Athabasca Oil Sands in northern Alberta, one of the largest petroleum deposits in the world.
The book delves into mythology as well as medicine. The chapter on Amanita muscaria, for example, is filled with Celtic, Egyptian, and First Nation mythology to inspire the imagination and is guaranteed to surprise the reader with medicinal uses for various neuromuscular and psychosomatic conditions.
Many unusual species including Boschniakia rossica, Collybia maculata, Cortinarius spp., Echinodontium tinctorium, Haploporus odorus, Hydnum repandum, Leccinum spp., Mycena spp., Phallus impudicus, Pholiota spp., Plectania nigrella, Polyporus tuberaster, Rozites caperata, Tricholoma magnivelare, and a wide variety of Russula species, are mentioned.
The author’s main interest is in polypore mushrooms. This is evidenced throughout the book by the inclusion of extensive chapters on Fomes fomentarius (Amadou or German Tinder), Fomitopsis officinalis (quinine conk or agaricon), F. pinicola (red belted conk), Ganoderma applanatum (artist’s conk), G. tsugae (varnished conk), Inonotus obliquus (chaga), Lenzites betulina (white gilled polypore), and Piptoporus betulinus (razor strop or birch conk). The author lives on the edge of the boreal forest and mentions that millions of tons of these medicinal conks are available for harvest from public lands. He explains that the northern part of Canada has a number of economically marginalized communities that could benefit from cooperative collection and extraction of these medicinal mushrooms. Robert Rogers’ appreciation of the medicine of the people of the First Nations shows through his numerous descriptions of traditional uses of fungi.
The Fungal Pharmacy is timely and welcomed and will be of interest to mycologists, taxonomists, biotechnologists, mushroom producers, researchers, medical doctors and specialists in alternative medicine, environmentalists, ecologists, wild-crafters, scientists, and anyone else interested in medicinal mushrooms. From folklore to modern scientific analysis, this book presents inspiration and hope for increasing the health and wellbeing of humans and other inhabitants of our planet.
—SOLOMON P. WASSER, PHD, DR. SCI. (BIOLOGY); PROFESSOR OF BOTANY AND MYCOLOGY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF HAIFA—MT. CARMEL, ISRAEL; EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MEDICINAL MUSHROOMS