FUNGI
Importance of
Penicillium is well
known.
Many fungi used
as food.
Edible mushrooms
very important
as food + medicine.
Penicillium
Researchers have shown the healing
benefits of natural (organic) foods,
causing a renewed interest in plants as
sources of bioactive substances.
Some of the most exciting development s in
future plant use probably will come from
traditional & non- traditional drug making
organizations & pharmaceutical companies.
Functional food scienceone of the fast developing branches.
Has evolved from the awareness of
interelationships between
diet & disease.
It is quite distinct from the Medical &
Pharmaceutical Sciences.
Nutrition essential for life but can cause many
chronic diseases.
Those attributed to diet are:
coronary heart disease, diabetes,
strokes,
atherosclerosis,
obesity,
certain forms of cancer –
Regular consumption of fruits & vegetables
(classical functional foods) -now considered
essential in CANCER prevention.
Several names used for functional foods;
1-dietary supplements,
2-designer foods
3-nutra-or nutri-ceuticals,
4-vita foods,
5-medical foods,
6-pharmafoods, phytochemicals,
7-myco-chemicals,
8-biochemo-preventatives,
9-foods for specific health uses.
Term dietary supplement (DS) -more widely
accepted & recognised→product intended to
supplement the diet to enhance health.
Medicinal Value of MUSHROOMS
Large Fleshy Mushrooms
Functional foods.
Fear of mushroom poisoning does exist.
BUT Edible Mushrooms are increasingly
being evaluated for their nutritional
value.
Valued as nutritional foods +
dietary supplements.
Extensively used as
nutriceuticals + source for the generation of
pharmaceutical-grade medicines
to treat many diseases, including CANCER
History
Mushrooms -used by humans in antiquity.
Early civilisations had practical knowledge
of edible & poisonous or psychotropic
forms (trial and error).
Ancient usage related to the psycho-active,
hallucinogenic properties of Psilocybe, Panaeolus
& Amanita muscaria - well known.
Mushrooms -used in ancient religious beliefs &
practices.
Mushroom stones dating back to 3000 BC have
been found at Mayan excavation sites in
Guatemala.
Psilocybe coprophila
Basidiomycetes
Amanita marmorata ssp myrtacearum. Commonly associated
with Eucalyptus, Melaleuca and Casuarina.
Cortinarius clelndii. Commonly associated
with Eucalyptus, Melaleuca and Casuarina.
Laccaria fraterna. Commonly associated
with Eucalyptus, Melaleuca and Casuarina.
Suillus salmonicolor. Associated with species of Pinus. Note that
this species produces a porous hymenium rather than gills.
Amanita muscaria. Associated with species of Pinus.
Ancient Romans regarded them as “the foods of
the Gods” resulting from bolts of lightening
thrown to the earth by Jupiter during thunder
storms.
Egyptians considered them as “a gift from the
God Osiris”(god of dead) and Chinese accepted
them as “the elixir of life”.
Many stories about deadly poisonous
mushrooms like Amanita phalloides.
Claudius II and Pope Clement VII are
strongly believed to have died by
mushroom poisoning.
Some legends suggest -Buddha died in this
way.
Amanita muscaria var. guessowii
Death cap (Amanita phalloides)
MUSHROOMS
Heterogeneous group of non-photosynthetic organisms → over
12,000 species - macroscopic fruit-bodies, seen by the naked
eye.
± 2400 taxa of mushrooms - in Turkey.
2 Groups→Ascomycetes (morchella, truffles)
Wide range of shapes:umbrella, kidney etc.
Great color diversity.
Weighing from few to several hundred grams.
Majority saprophytes - on fallen leaves, animal
droppings, & stumps of the dead wood.
Multiply by millions of spores, (germinate branch to form mycelium in a suitable
environment), which colonizes the substrate and
uses the available nutrients.
Some mycelia pre- grown under sterile
conditions -called spawn. Colonizes the
growing substrate.
35 species of mushrooms have been
cultivated commercially ± 20 cultivated on
industrial scale.
Nutritional Value
Fresh mushrooms -high moisture content ± 90 %so shelf life is very short.
Good source of digestible proteins, values>above
most vegetables BUT less than most meats, milk
Range 10-40 % on dry weight basis.
Contain all essential amino acids-amount varies
with the species, growth medium, growth
conditions & stage of maturation at the time of
picking.
Sulphur-containing amino acids, methionine &
cystine are limited, but lysine is dominant in almost
all mushrooms.
Most relatively poor in crude fat (2-8 % on dry
bases), but less than 1% on fresh weight basis.
Most Fatty acids are unsaturated, include all main
classes of lipid compounds including free fatty
acids, mono-, di- and triglycerides, sterols, sterol
esters & phospholipids.
Fresh -contain 3-21 % carbohydrates.
Total carbohydrates generally represent more than
50 % of the dry matter.
Rich in crude fiber (3-35 % on dry weight basis) not
easily digested by humans.
Calorific value bmostly low.
Several vitamins - thiamine (B1), riboflavin (B2),
niacin, biotin & ascorbic acid (VitC), B1 , B2 ,
niacin , but are poor in vitamin C.
Vitamins A & D relatively uncommon but some
species have detectable amounts of β-carotine &
ergosterol which change into active vitamin D
under light.
Good source of minerals-substantial quantities of P
& K, lesser amounts of Ca & Fe + a full range of
trace elements.
Mushrooms &
Medicine
Traditional Chinese Medicines BOOK published in
1575 documents some 20 mushroom species.
Presently ± 270 species known to have various
therapeutic properties.
More than 100 species used by traditional
practitioners for high blood pressure, diabetes, antibacteria, antioxidant, free radical scavenging, antiviral, and hypercholesterolemia, .
Best known medicinal mushrooms on global scale both
edible and non-edible are;
Ganoderma lucidum (Reishi or Ling Zhi),
Lentinus (Lentinula) edodes (Shiitake),
Grifola frondosa (Maitake),
Pleurotus ostreatus (Oyster mushroom),
Phellinus linteus,
Porio cocos,
Auricularia auricula,
Hericium erinaceus,
Trametes (Coriolus) versicolor,
Tremella fuciformis,
Schizophyllum commune.
Flammulina velutipes,
Agaricus bisporus-Basidiomycetes
Reishi/Lingzhi - Ganoderma lucidum
Chinese
• Auricularia auricula-judae
Auricularia polytricha
Hericium erinaceus
Very promising results obtained from Grifron-D
(Grifola frondosa) on breast, prostate, lung, liver &
gastric cancers in Japan & USA.
Two compounds PSK & PSP derived from mycelial
cultures of Trametes versicolor- Good anti-cancer
properties; with stomach, oesophagus, nasopharynx,
colon, rectum , lung, and with subsets of breast cancer;
when given with traditional chemotherapeutic agents
with no side-effects.
Depends on; dosage, administration route and
frequency, timing and, mechanism of action or the site
of activity.
• Grifola frondosa (Maitake),
Trametes (Coriolus)versicolor
Therapeutically consumed as powdered concentrates or
extracts in hot water.
Extract also concentrated and used as drink or freeze-dried
or spray-dried to form granular powders permitting easier
handling, transportation and consumption.
As dietary supplements in capsular form or mushroom
nutriceuticals
(crude
mixtures
&
differ
from
pharmaceuticals which are a chemical preparation).
Continuous use increases immune responses of body,
resistance to disease, even causes regression of the disease
state.
Cancer immunology has become a rapidly
growing field.
Anti-tumour polysaccharides in mushrooms:
water-soluble β-D-glucans, or β-D-glucanprotein complexes-proteoglycans.
Schizophyllan (Schizophyllum commune) has
proved useful in gastric cancers and has also
increased the survival time of patients with head
and neck cancers without any side effects.
Schizophyllum commune
Flammulina velutipes
Among the polysaccharides compounds
with clinical trials Lentinan (Lentinus
edodes) has demonstrated strong antitumour activity with human clinical trials
by prolonging the survival of patients with
gastric and colorectal cancer with no side
effects.
Approved as a drug in Japan and is
considered
an
important
adjuvant
treatment for several cancers.
• Lentinus Edodes (Shitake)
In
Japan,
Korea
&China
mushroom
polysaccharides used on large scale singly or in
mixtures as adjuncts to standard radio- &
chemotherapy.
When taken as a supplement, by intravenous
route or orally they show beneficial effects on the
quality of life for some advanced cancer patients.
Mushroom-derived polysaccharides when taken
prior to & during radiotherapy &/or
chemotherapy they significantly reduce the sideeffects of these treatments.
No significant short or long-term adverse effects
reported with purified mushroom polysaccharides from
Ganoderma spp., Lentinus edodes, Schizophyllum
commune, Tremella fusiformis, Trametes versicolor, and
Grifola frondosa, and more recently Phellinus and
Hericium erinaceus.
The safety criteria for mushroom-derived β-glucans
have been studied at length in pre-clinical trials.
Acute, subacute & chronic toxicity tests have been
carried out together with administration during
pregnancy & lactation without any adverse effects, as
well as no evidence of genotoxicity.
No members of Panaeolus are used for
food, though some are used as
a psychedelic drug.
13 species - contain the hallucinogen
psilocybin including
Panaeolus cyanescens &
Panaeolus cinctulus.
Tuber melanosporum Black Truffle
Advantages in using mushroom products:
-Majority commercially cultivated
(no wild collection)
guarantees identification &
relatively pure,
unadulterated products.
-Easy vegetative propagation –
kept to one clone.
-Mycelium can be stored for a long time.
-Genetic & Biochemical Consistency can
be checked any tim.
-Ability to grow most medicinal
mushrooms as mycelium in fermenters
under controlled conditions ensures
improved product purity.
Medicinal mushrooms -rich source of biomedical
molecules.
Many classified as anti-tumour chemicals by the
US National Cancer Institute.
From a holistic consideration, consumption of
whole edible medicinal mushrooms or extracts or
concentrates (dietary supplements) may well
offer novel, highly palatable, nutritious & health
benefiting ingredients as functional foods.
Two Old Proverbs
• Hippocrates: “Let food be your medicine & medicine be
your food”
• Chinese:“Medicine & Food have a common origin”
Historical Landmarks: ETHNOBOTANY
Prehistory (60 000 years B.C.)
Herbal medicine is the oldest from of
healthcare known to mankind
The Middle Paleolithic Neanderthal
graves (60,000 to 70,000 old) in Shanidar
caves in Iraq were found to have the
remains of flowers - Yarrow, Cornflower,
Bachelor’s Button, St. Barnaby’s Thistle,
Ragwort or Groundsel, Grape Hyacinth,
Joint Pine or Woody Horsetail, and
Hollyhock, which are long-known to have
curative powers as diuretics, stimulants,
astringents and anti-inflammatory agents
Shanidar IV
Side Effects of Modern Drugs :
Source: 17 March 2008 | Nature
• Many non-steroidal drugs cause 7,000
deaths & over 120,000 hospitalizations in
the U.S. annually.
• Acetaminophen overdose is the leading
cause of acute liver failure & cause of
10 % of all cases of kidney failure.
• Adverse drug reactions are known to be responsible for
between 3% & 12% of admissions to hospitals in Sweden.
• Fatal adverse drug reactions are the 7th most common cause
of death in Sweden.
Problems in the PAST:
″I have an ear ache″
Solution:
2000 BC - Here, eat this root.
1000 AD - That root is heathen, say this prayer.
1850 AD - That prayer is superstition,
drink this portion.
1940 AD - That portion is snake oil, swallow this pill.
1985 AD - That pill is ineffective, take this antibiotic.
2000 AD - That antibiotic is artificial, here eat this root.
AS in the Past , even to-day, medical
knowledge is passed on by word of mouth
from generation to generation.
Earlier communications between the
tribes
were poor, remedies were probably
discovered independently many times in
several parts of the world.
Sumerian drawings of opium poppy
capsules from 2500 B.C. suggest a good
knowledge of medicinal plants.
Most important record - a series of
tablets curved, code of Hammurabi,
under the direction of the
king of Babylon in
about 1770 B.C.
.
Sumer to Sargon
Plants & Civilizations
Sumerian drawings of opium
poppy capsules from 2500 B.C.
suggest a good knowledge of
medicinal plants.
Most important record is a
series of tablets curved with the
code of Hammurabi, under the
direction of the king of Babylon
in about 1770 B.C.
Clay tablets
Collection of vegetal formulae
Sumero-Akkadian
pharmacopoeia :  40 plants
Antiquity
Sumeriens (5 000 years B. JC)
• Clay tablets
• Collection of vegetal formulae
• Sumero-Akkadian
pharmacopoeia :  40 plants
Egyptians recorded their knowledge of
illnesses & cures on temple wall
(1550 B.C.) Egyptian Civilisation
 Pomegranate Tree (bark)
 Colchic (seeds)
 Mandrake (root)
 Cumin (fruit)
 poppy (capsule)
 Garlic (bulb)
 balsams, resin, essential oils…
Antiquity
The golden age of Greece was a time of
great advancement in
medicinal + biological knowledge.
Hippocrates (460-377 B.C.), was the father of
modern medicine.
Many medical researches argue that
advances in the biochemistry of diseases
make it easier to design synthetic drugs
that address specific biochemical problems
without relying on plant-derived
compounds or precursors or blue prints.
Ancestral empirical knowledge, transmitted through generations and centuries
MEDICINE WAS BORN IN THIS LAND
Hippocrates of Chios (Kos)
BC 500
Father of Medicine
Temple of Aesculapius in
Pergamon (Bergama)
God of Medicine
Theophrastus of Lesbos
(Midilli)
BC 371-287
Father of Botany
Pedanios Dioscorides
of Anazarba (Adana)
1st century AD
Father of Pharmacists
Galenus of Pergamon
(Bergama)
AD 130-200
Father of Physicians
Why Emphasis on Medicinal Value of Food?
Prevention is better than Cure.
The Primary Law of Healing “Let thy food
be thy medicine” Hippocrates (460-370 BC)
Pedanius Dioscorides of
Anazarbos De medicinali
materia libri
Plant Medicine & Muslim Herbalists
Over many centuries, they wrote
(From Badiaa Lyoussi)
a large number of books &
treatises on medicinal plants,
in North African countries,
Egypt,
and the Middle East.
Baghdad was the
world's
leading medical and
drug center.
Plant Medicine & Muslim Herbalists
With the skill of muslim Alchemists,
art of drug making began to
evolved into the
science of pharmacology
Western physicians emerging
from the Middle Ages found the
muslim pharmacopoeia
(based on the Greek and enriched
By muslim herbalists),
containing hundreds of plants
used in medicine.
Renaissance
Opening of the spice road
…ginger, cardamom, nutmeg, curcuma, senna …
19th century
Curares  birth of
Experimental
Pharmacology (1850) -a
common name for
arrow
poisons originating
from South America.
Functions by competitively and reversibly inhibiting the sub-type
of Nicotinic Acetylcholine receptors found at the neuromuscular
junction.
Causes eventual death by asphyxiation due to paralysis of
the diaphragm.
C. Bernard (1813-1878)
19th Century
CH3O
Quinquinas  quinine (1820)
Herbal Medicinal Plants and Traditional Herb Remedies
(Traditional & Alternative Medicine)
We must promote a blend of tradition medicine
& modern drugs to achieve the goal of
"Health for All"
Both dying wisdom and vanishing crops must
be saved.
This is why the WHO gave the slogan
"save medicinal plants to save lives".
Unfortunately much of the
knowledge on
traditional medicine is
getting lost.
We still afford to remain
silent spectators of
genetic erosion
among medicinal plants.
19th century
Raubasine
Rauwolfias  antihypertensives
 coronary-dilatators
20th
century
Ginkgo  vasodilator and anti-ischemic
Taxus brevifolia (Taxaceae)
• (Pacific yew or western yew) -a conifer native
to the Pacific Northwest of North America.
Originally known as YEW.
• YEW in Scotland has the Largest recorded
trunk girth in Britain -2,000 to 3,000 years old.
• One of the world's oldest surviving wooden
artifacts is a Clactonian yew spear head,
(1911 Essex, UK) ± about 450,000 years old.
Taxus baccata-a conifer native to western, central
& southern Europe, northwest Africa, northern
Iran & southwest Asia.
• Traditionally-wood used by native Americans
to make bows-paddles for canoes etc.
• Japanese-used
purposes.
the
wood
for
decorative
• In 1021, IBN SINA introduced the medicinal
use.
• T. baccata for phytotherapy in The Canon of
Medicine.
• He named this herbal drug "Zarnab" and used
it as a cardiac remedy.
• Unlicensed pharmaceutical production use of
closely related wild yew species in India and
China may be threatening some of those species.
• This was the first known use of a calcium channel
blocker drug, which were not in wide use in
the Western world until the 1960s.
• The precursors of chemotherapy drug Paclitaxel can
be derived from the leaves of European yew, which
is a more renewable source than the bark of the
Pacific yew (Taxus brevifolia).
• In the Central Himalayas, the plant is used as a
treatment for breast and ovarian cancer.
“Al-Qanun book”
A rare
manuscript
from 15th
century
* Al-Qanun book was known to the
Europeans through the Latin translations of Gerard of Cremona in the 15th century.
* It remained in use in medical schools at Louvain and Montpellier until the 17th
century.
* A copy was still in use in Belgium in 1909
From: Prof. Badiaa Lyoussi
Taxus  antitumor
Taxol
• Most parts of tree -toxic, except bright red
aril surrounding the seed.
• Ingestion and subsequent excretion by
birds whose beaks and digestive systems do
not break down the seed's coating are the
primary means of yew dispersal.
• Chemotherapy drug paclitaxel (stem bark)
(taxol), used in breast, ovarian, & lung
cancer treatment,-derived from
Taxus brevifolia (0.01 % dry weight).
• A centery-old Taxus tree yields about 3 kg of
bark-300 mg of paclitaxel- course of
treatment with this requires 2 g/ patient.
• Had already become scarce when its
chemotherapeutic potential was realized,
was never commercially harvested from
its habitat at a large scale.
• Widespread use of taxol was enabled
when a semi-synthetic pathway was
developed from extracts of cultivated
yews of other species.
• Foliage remains toxic even when wilted-toxicity
increases in potency when dried, more toxic
than seed, fatal poisoning in humans is rare,
usually occurs after consuming yew foliage.
• Major toxin within the yew is the alkaloid
taxine.
• Horses have the lowest tolerance to taxine, with
a lethal dose of 200–400 mg/kg body
weight, cattle, pigs, and other livestock are only
slightly less vulnerable.
• Symptoms of yew poisoning:
accelerated heart rate,
muscle tremors,
convulsions,
collapse,
difficulty in breathing,
circulation impairment,
eventually heart failure.
• If poisoning remains undetected death may
occur within hours.
• Catharanthus
roseus
(Apocynaceae),
commonly known as the Madagascar rosy
periwinkle, is endemic to Madagascar.
• Rosinidin is an anthocyanidin pigment
found in the flowers of C. roseus.
• The species has long been cultivated
for herbal medicine and as an ornamental
plant.
Catharanthus roseus: Tropical vinca  anticancer
• In Ayurveda (Indian traditional medicine)
the extracts of its roots and shoots, though
poisonous, is used against several diseases.
• In traditional Chinese medicine, extracts
from it have been used against numerous
diseases, including diabetes, malaria,
and Hodgkin' lymphoma.
• Conflict between historical indigenous use,
and recent patents on C.roseus-derived drugs
by western pharmaceutical companies,
without compensation, has led to accusations
of biopiracy.
• It can be dangerous if consumed orally.
• It can be extremely toxic, and is cited (under
its synonym Vinca rosea).
However, probability of obtaining an
effective compound from natural sources is
still much greater than that of designing a
completely new one.
Since plant diversity is disappearing at an
alarming rate, there is a new sense of
urgency behind the search for plants that
cure.
Teams of botanists collecting plants in the
major global rainforest areas,
Central America, the Amazon Basin,
South & South East Asia + Africa.
For a better look at our furure we need to understand
and look deeply at our past.
Thomas Henry Huxley, 1881
It is easy to sneer at our ancestors, but it is much
more profitable to try to discover why they,
who were really not one with less sensible persons
than our excellent selves, should have been led
to entertain views which strike us as absurd.
CURRENTLY: The Science of “Medicinal Plants” lies
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