@ MAITAKE, one of the best ‘shrooms you’ve never heard of

MAITAKE, latin name Grifola frondosa also known in the West as Hen-of-the-woods, Ram’s Head and Sheep’s Head.

My wife doesn’t like mushrooms. Often at a meal where mushrooms were an ingredient in one of the courses, I will at some point find a little pile of picked out mushroom on my plate. She says it is not a flavor thing but a texture thing. I like them, so much so that I’ve even given thought to growing my own shiitake mushrooms. This report is about MAITAKE mushrooms, not button or enoki or shiitake, though they all seem to have advantages in fighting cancer.

MAITAKE mushrooms are not your normal mushrooms in appearance. You have likely seen them growing in the woods at the base of a tree. Unlike the bracket fungus growing on trees known as “chicken of the woods” or “sulfur shelf” it is a cluster of greyish brown spoon shaped caps on white stems usually growing at the base of an oak. Found as far west as Idaho. They’ve grown as large as 50 pounds! (Please rely on a mycologist for identification of fungi!) Chinese and the Japanese are fond of them and they have both culinary and medical use in those countries.

Traditionally they have been used to enhance the immune system. Modern medicine has found that they are effective in far more than just that one use: Regulates blood pressure, glucose, insulin, serum and liver lipids and beneficially affect cholesterol and triglycerides.

If you have a problem with taste or texture they are easily obtained in capsule form, (see Sources)

My “raw” early research notes appear below, more detailed discussion of the supporting studies will have to appear later.

–rich in potassium calcium magnesium, vitamins B2 D2 and niacin
–active constituent identified in late ’80’s: BETA GLUCAN, a polysaccharide
–Sloan-Kettering: MAITAKE stimulates immune system in breast cancer patients (phase I/II human trial)
–in vitro: induces apoptosis (cell death) in cancer cell lines: prostate cancer cells, Hep 3B, SGC-7901, murine skin carcinoma cells, and inhibit growth in canine cancer cells, bladder cancer cells.
–hypoglycemic effect…naturally contains an alpha glucosidase inhibitor
–a fraction (active compound separated from the whole mushroom) found to possess anti-metastatic ability, and in 1997 the FDA approved an “Investigational New Drug Application”
–contains antioxidants
–partially inhibits cyclooxygenase
–an extract of MAITAKE inhibits angiogenesis by way of vascular endothelial growth factor.
–shown to enhance interferon activity against bladder cancer cells
–shown to relieve inflammation due to inflammatory bowel disease
–in a small non-controlled study tumor regression or significant improvements in symptoms were observed in half of the subjects using the MAITAKE extract
–contains polysaccharides, beta and alpha glucans
–contains octadecanoic and octadecadienoic acids
–contains phospholipids: PHOSPHATIDYLCHOLINE, PHOSPHATIDYL INOSITOL, PHOSPHATIDYL SERINE
–contains ERGOSTEROL a vitamin D2 precursor
–may modulate antigen presentation …against tumor implantation in mice
–bladder cancer: superficial tumors are a common presentation of bladder cancer. Removal of the bladder is the “primary surgical modality” for those patients. Recurrence rate is 65% over 5 years. 15% progress to muscle invasion. A study of one patient with invasive bladder cancer was given an active fraction of MAITAKE orally. That fraction was named “D-fraction”. Despite high risk of recurrence the patient demonstrated NO clinical evidence of progression and appeared to be in remission two years later. The fact that this “study” involved ONE single patient weakens it substantially. There are NO guarantees but one does have to wonder.
–D fraction and interferon were studied together in their combined effect on a prostate cancer cell line (PC-3). The combination appeared to be synergistic and reduced growth by approximately 65% at “low” concentrations.
–patients with hormone refractory prostate cancer respond poorly to chemotherapy (less than 10%, unquote). When carmustine was combined with BETA GLUCAN, (from MAITAKE), the result was an enhanced cytotoxicity with a 90%+- cell viability reduction in the PC-3 androgen independent prostate cancer cell line.
–human prostate cancer cells were treated with a highly purified BETA GLUCAN at various concentrations.
a dose responsive study showed a greater than 95% cell death after 24 hrs. “Combinations as low as 30 to 60 microg/mL with 200 microM vitamin C induced greater than 90% reduction in cell viability.” BETA GLUCAN, VITAMIN C and CARMUSTINE together “may have great potential as an alternative therapeutic modality”. To me that appears to be an UNDERSTATEMENT!
–studies indicate that the active ingredient in MAITAKE, D-FRACTION has potential to decrease the size of lung liver and breast tumors. NK cells (natural killer cells) seem to be enhanced by D-FRACTION at the same time it represses cancer progression, hindered metastasis, and reduced the expression of tumor markers.
–reduces angiogenesis (the creation of new blood vessels to supply oxygen to a growing tumor)
–a dietary supplement called MycoPhyto Complex, a medicinal mushroom blend, was studied. It was found to be able to inhibit metastatic behavior of the MDA-MB-231 human breast cancer cell line, by reducing cell adhesion, migration and invasion.
–in another study of a Chinese combination of various mushrooms called “M8” it was observed that it had antitumor activities. (Armillaria mellea, Grifola frondosa, Garnoderma frondosa, Codyceps militaris, Hericium erinaceus, Coriolus versicolor, Agaricus blazei and Lycium chinense miller)

There are many mushroom species that are beneficial to cancer patients this is just one of them.
Consider including them in your daily diet, either as they are or as a supplement. In a very brief Google search I was unable to find a M8 supplement for sale. The MycoPhyto Complex is easily found at a number of sources. There are lots of other supplements that have single or multiple mushroom extracts/contents. I am not necessarily recommending one over another, but if I had to choose I’d take a multiple mushroom supplement, as well as including them in my meals.

best of health
martin