Indian Medicinal Mushrooms As A Source of Antioxidant and Antitumor Agents
Indian Medicinal Mushrooms As A Source of Antioxidant and Antitumor Agents
Indian Medicinal Mushrooms As A Source of Antioxidant and Antitumor Agents
Department of Biochemistry, Amala Institute of Medical Sciences, Amala Nagar, Thrissur, Kerala-680 555, India
Department of Microbiology, Amala Cancer Research Centre, Amala Nagar, Thrissur, Kerala-680 555, India
Introduction
Many clinically used drugs such as aspirin, digitoxin,
progesterone, cortisone, morphine, vincristine, vinblastine,
taxol and several others are derived directly or indirectly from
higher plants. Clinically important and well recognized drugs
of fungal origin are penicillin, griseofulvin, ergot alkaloids
and cyclosporine. Among the large resources of fungi, higher
Basidiomycetes especially mushrooms are unlimited sources
of therapeutically useful biologically active agents. There
are approximately 700 species of higher Basidiomycetes that
have been found to possess significant pharmacological
activities [1, 2]. Modern scientific studies on medicinal
mushrooms have expanded exponentially during the last two
decades not only in Japan, Korea and China but also in
USA and scientific explanation to show mushrooms derived
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Phellinus rimosus
Phellinus is a large and widely distributed genus of the
family Hymenochetaceae. (Donk) under the class, Basidiomycetes. The species are mostly confined to the plains/
tropical forests. Environmental factors such as temperature,
humidity, light and host trees are very important for development of basidiocarps. The dominant and most frequently
found species are Phellinus (P. senex), P. rimosus, P. badius,
P. fastuosus, P. adamantinus, P. caryophylli and P. durrissimus
[11]. About 18 species are found to occur in Kerala, most of
them are wood inhabiting [12]. P. rimosus (Berk) Pilat is
found growing on jackfruit tree trunks in Kerala. In Kerala,
this mushroom is commonly found on living Moraceae
members.
In Chinese medicine hot water extract of the fruiting
bodies of Phellinus species have been used for an extensive
range of ailments and it is believed to work as a miracle
drug refreshing the human body and prolong longevity
[13]. Recent studies have compared hot water extract of
Phellinus with other anticancer mushrooms. The Phellinus
extract showed the strongest evidence of tumor proliferation
suppression [14].
Ethyl acetate, methanol and aqueous extracts of the P.
rimosus were effective to scavenge O2 generated from
the photoillumination of riboflavin, OH generated from
Fentons reaction, nitric oxide radical released from aqueous
solution of sodium nitroprusside in a dose dependent manner
[1517]. The extracts inhibited dose dependently ferrous ion
induced lipid peroxidation in the rat whole liver homogenate.
The effective concentrations required to scavenge 50% of
generated radicals (IC50) are given in Table 1. Methanol
extract of P. rimosus effectively reduced ferric ion in FRAP
assay and scavenged DPPH radicals (Fig. 1).
All the three extracts when tested for antitumor activity
were found to inhibit the Daltons Lymphoma Ascites
(DLA) cell line induced solid tumor in mice and Ehrlichs
Ascites Carcinoma (EAC) cell line induced ascites tumor in
mice [18]. The antitumor effect was found to be higher for
the ethyl acetate extract than other extracts (Fig. 2). The
results indicated that the extracts of P. rimosus possessed
profound antitumor activity.
Ganoderma lucidum
Ganoderma lucidum (G. lucidum) and related species
have the longest historical usage for medicinal properties
dating back at least four thousand years [19]. In Japan it
is called Reishi and in China and Korea it is variously
called Ling Chu and Ling Zhi (Mushroom of immortality).
Traditionally it has been used widely in the treatment of
hepatopathy, chronic hepatitis, nephritis, hypertension,
arthritis, insomnia, bronchitis, asthma and gastric ulcer.
Scientific studies have confirmed that the substances
extracted from the mushrooms can reduce blood pressure,
J. Clin. Biochem. Nutr.
159
Table 1. In vitro antioxidant activity of ethyl acetate (EtOAC), methanol (MeOH) and aqueous
(AQ) extracts of P. rimosus (Pr), G. lucidum (Gl), P. florida (Pf), and P. pulmonarius
(Pp).
IC50 (g/ml)
Extracts
Super oxide
scavenging
Nitric oxide
scavenging
Hydroxyl radical
scavenging
EtOAc
22.0 1.0
(Pr)
(Pf)
438.0 21.6
(Pr)
(Pf)
68.0 4.1
(Pr)
530.0 29.4
(Pf)
162 7.0
(Pr)
496.0 4.7
(Pf)
MeOH
25.3 1.2
(Pr)
152.5 2.5
(Gl)
(Pp)
(Pf)
126.7 12.6
(Pr)
(Gl)
(Pp)
(Pf)
93.0 10.3
(Pr)
560.0 0.1
(Gl)
476.7 24.6
(Pp)
263.3 24.9
(Pf)
282 12.8
(Pr)
873.5 7.2
(Gl)
960.0 10.0
(Pp)
320.0 10.0
(Pf)
AQ
126.0 5.1
(Pr)
475.0 25.0
(Gl)
(Pf)
31.0 4.5
(Pr)
(Gl)
(Pf)
71.0 4.7
(Pr)
140.0 2.0
(Gl)
263.3 24.9
(Pf)
318 2.4
(Pr)
(Gl)
(Pf)
Lipid peroxidation
inhibiting
Fig. 2.
Fig. 1.
Ferric ion reducing and DPPH radical scavenging activities of methanol extract of P. rimosus. Values are
mean SD, (n = 4). Activities are expressed in equivalent concentrations of trolox.
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The results of the antioxidant assays showed that ethyl acetate, methanol and aqueous extract of G. lucidum effectively
scavenged the O2 and OH radicals (Table 1). However the
aqueous extract was not effective to inhibit the ferrous ion
induced lipid peroxidation [21]. The extract showed significant reducing power and radical scavenging property as evident from FRAP assay (Fig. 3) and DPPH radical scavenging assay (Fig. 4) [23]. The extract of G. lucidum also effectively to inhibited EAC cell line induced solid tumor in
mice when administered orally (Fig. 2) [21]. The prophylactic treatment by the extract could inhibit the tumor growth
significantly or increased the life span.
Pleurotus species
Pleurotus species have high medicinal value. Compounds
extracted from these mushrooms exhibit activity against
various chronic diseases including hypertension, hyper-
Current Status
Fig. 3.
Fig. 4.
Conclusions
Recent investigations carried out in our laboratory showed
that medicinal mushrooms occurring in South India namely
Ganoderma lucidum, Phellinus rimosus, Pleurotus florida
and Pleurotus pulmonaris possessed profound antioxidant
and antitumor activities. This indicated that these mushrooms would be valuable sources of antioxidant an antitumor compounds. Investigations also showed that they had
significant antimutagenic and anticarcinogenic activies. Thus,
Indian medicinal mushrooms are potential sources of antioxidant and anticancer compounds. However, intensive and
extensive investigations are needed to exploit their valuable
therapeutic use.
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