GROWING GOURMET - Anto2ni.it

GROWTH PARAMETERS 377
1992, dried Maitake from Japan was fetching between $600- $ 1200 per dry pound when sold to the
medicinal mushroom market. Availability of this mushroom is expected to fluctuate wildly as demand
surges in response to its rapidly increasing medicinal reputation.
Nutritional Content: Approximately 27% protein (dry weight). Producing assorted vitamins -Vitamin
B 1: 1.5 mg%; Vitamin B2: 1.6 mg%; Niacin: 54 mg%; Vitamin C: 63 mg%; and Vitamin D: 410
IU. Saccharide content is nearly 50%. Assorted minerals/metals include: Magnesium at 67 mg%; Iron at
0.5 mg%; Calcium at 11.0 mg%; and Phosphorus at 425 mg%. Moisture content of fresh specimens are
approximately 80%, in contrast to more fleshy mushrooms which average 90% water.
Medicinal Properties: Recent, in vitro studies at the National Cancer Institute of the powdered
fruitbodies (sulfated fraction) of show significant activity against the HIV (AIDS)
virus when tested through its Anti-HIV Drug Testing System under the Developmental Therapeutics
Program. The National Institute of Health of Japan announced similar results in January of 1991.
(The mycelium is not active.) Maitake extracts compared favorably with AZT but with no negative
side effects. This is the first mushroom confirmed to have anti-lilY activity, in vitro, by both US and
Japanese researchers. U.S. scientists, using similar screening techniques, have not been able to confirm
the anti-HJV effects of Shiitake and Reishi. Studies with human subjects are currently ongoing
in United States, Sweden and England. As promising as these preliminary studies are, optimism
must be held in check until human studies confirm activity.
One of the polysaccharide fractjons responsible for the immunostimulatory activity is three
branched 131.6 Glucan, known as grifolan. This polysaccharide was first characterized by Ohno eta!.
Figure 339. Maitake fruiting in Japan from blocks that were buried outside in soil months before.
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