[MPWG] Fw: [WorthleyBotany] Mushroom News

[Meghan Tice]

Though not plants...
----- Original Message ----- 
From: Linda Davis<mailto:davis_tutor at yahoo.com> 
To: WorthleyBotany at yahoogroups.com<mailto:WorthleyBotany at yahoogroups.com> 
Sent: Friday, March 25, 2005 5:07 PM
Subject: [WorthleyBotany] Mushroom News


Medicinal Mushrooms from Old-Growth Forests 
May Counter Smallpox and Similar Viruses

KAMILCHE POINT, Wash., Mar 25, 2005 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Mycologist Paul
Stamets tests over 100 mushroom extracts with NIH and USAMRIID. Several show
selective potent anti-viral properties.

Recent in vitro tests demonstrate that a specially prepared extract from
Fomitopsis officinalis is highly selective against viruses. The wood conk
mushroom has been known for thousands of years as Agarikon. It is extinct or
nearly so in Europe and Asia, and is still found in the old-growth forests
of the American Pacific Northwest. It may provide novel anti-viral drugs
useful for protecting against pox and other viruses.

That is the forecast of Paul Stamets, owner and director of the research
laboratories of Fungi Perfecti of Kamilche Point, Washington. He is a
mycologist--a fungus expert. For the past two years, Stamets has prepared
more than a hundred strains of medicinal mushroom extracts for testing by
the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of
the National Institutes of Health and the US Army Medical Research Institute
of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID), in their joint biodefense antiviral
screening program. The results to date promise breakthroughs on this
biomedical frontier.

While several strains of extract generated strong anti-pox activity, other
strains were less potent. This underscores the importance of conserving
mycodiversity. More potent strains may yet be discovered. As for F.
officinalis, this mushroom was first described 2000 years ago as an
anti-inflammatory medicine by Dioscorides, the Greek physician in his text
Materia Medica.

"The ecological niche for these unique mushrooms is increasingly jeopardized
as humans destroy old-growth habitats," comments Stamets. "As this happens,
the pool of available strains will be further reduced. Acquiring as many
strains as possible should be an international priority so that preventive
or curative medicines against pox and related viruses can be developed.
Personally, I believe we should be saving our old growth forests as a matter
of national defense."

Besides having a direct anti-viral or anti-bacterial effect, mushroom
derivatives can also activate the natural immune system. Evaluations in an
animal model are planned for the near future. "Until then," Stamets
cautions, "we cannot draw conclusions about the ultimate effectiveness of
these mycologically based antivirals." Testing against other viruses
continues. Stamets has already been granted a patent on fungus-derived
products; several more are in the offing. His research has been self-funded
from his other businesses.
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