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Shiitake mushroom

Mushrooms (Basidiomycota) have long been known to have various medicinal effects. The shiitake mushroom (Lentinus edodes) is a scented, edible mushroom grown in Asia, largely in Japan, China, and South Korea. It can grow successfully on a wide variety of hardwood tree species. The part of the mushroom used as food consists of the reproductive body, also referred to as the fruiting body of fungi, and which produces spores, while the vegetative body includes hyphae which produce mycelia extending into a growing area such as soil or logs. The shiitake is currently the second most widely cultivated mushroom in the world, serving as both an edible mushroom and more recently for medicinal and health purposes. The shiitake mushroom contains carbohydrate, protein, fat, vitamin, potassium, calcium, phosphorus and iron, etc. It has been known to have efficacy in cancer, hypertension, heart disease, diabetes, stroke and the strengthening of cranial nerve, etc. It was found that one of the particularly valuable components of shiitake was eritadenine, which is an aliphatic adenin. Eritadenine is capable of reducing the concentration of cholesterol in blood serum. Functional foods for lowering cholesterol concentration have been prepared by drying shiitake mushrooms, by pulverising the dried mushrooms and by extracting and concentrating the product to obtain an extract which can be mixed into food, such as gum, candy, soup etc.

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