Maitake mushroom
The immune system is the body's basic protection and serves as both its essential mechanism for healing and its defense against premature aging. In general, it is believed that foodstuffs such as mushrooms, garlic, ginseng, American aloe and the like are effective in the promotion of human health, typically by enhancing immune function. It is well known there are many vitamins and minerals, essential fatty acids, proteins and carbohydrates which are required to sustain immune function. Vrious mushroom species have been employed for centuries in Asian medicine, and their role in supporting immune function is currently being investigated in the scientific community. Mushrooms contain large amounts of constituents suppressing mutagenesis substances, such as fibrous constituents, phytic acid in a form of phytin, beta-glucan or the like. All plants produce certain kinds of sugars that are a source of energy and that form the cell walls in some plants. Some of the complex sugars in mushrooms are called alpha and beta glucans and are the focus of studies concerning their effects on the human immune system. Beta glucans are not produced naturally in humans, and must therefore come from plant and animal sources. The three mushrooms which have the broadest range of action are Shiitake (Lentinus edodes), Reishi (Ganoderma lucidum) and Maitake (Grifola frondosa). Another popular mushroom is Coriolus versicolor, also known as Trametes versicolor. Maitake mushrooms (Grifola frondosa) are exceptionally high in beta glucans, while shiitake mushrooms have high concentrations of alpha glucans. It has been reported that beta-glucans in Maitake exerts various pharmacological effects such as anticancer effect, dementia-preventing effect, immune enhancing effect, tumor-suppressing effect, hair-growing effect and blood glucose-decreasing effect. It has already been made clear that beta-glucan breaks tumor cell by activating immunocomplement cells in the organism, resulting in retrocession of cancer. It has also been reported that an experiment on prostatic cancer cell of a human body demonstrated that .beta.-D-glucan induces a self-destruction inducing action. Beta-glucan is recognized as an effective immuno-stimulator. This substance increases the activity of macrophages and other immunocompetent cells that destroy tumor cells. The substance also improves the immunological efficiency of these cells by increasing production of cytokines IL-1, IL-2 and lymphokines. The final result is an increase of the defenses against infectious diseases. The incorporation of this phytomedicine provides at least 6 active ingredients for therapeutic use.
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