Will there be Mushroom Cancer Treatments?
Over the past twenty years, there has been a thriving amount of research on mushroom cancer treatments. The bulk of the research has been completed in Japan along with other Asian countries. But in the past few years, American scientists & doctors have began to investigate the impact of mushrooms for cancer patients.
One of America’s largest cancer research facilities, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, in York which is new is conducting clinical trials with Maitake Mushroom (Grifola frondosa). Certainly one of their current medical trials on a patented Maitake extract from Japan, has established an optimal serving for stimulating the immune system. They conducted the phase I/II trial on postmenopausal girls that had earlier finished breast cancer treatment.
In this Maitake researching clinical trial, researchers found out that there was no serving limiting toxicity for this Maitake extract. And so basically, that means it appears safe to take. The effect on the patients’ immune response was significant. And boosting the dose had a much stronger impact.
A convenient thing about this extract, would be that it could be taken orally. And doesn’t need being injected, just like other anti-cancer mushroom extracts like “Lentinan” (a Shiitake mushroom fraction approved since the 1980’s for managing gastric cancer in Japan) and “PSK” (the first mushroom-based anti-cancer drug, developed in Japan and obtained from the mushroom Coriolus versicolor). The individuals took it in a liquid form, by drinking it. Other forms are able to include smooth capsules, hard capsules and pressed pills.
So what is the Maitake mushroom fraction anyways? The discoverer, Professor Hiroaki Nanba discovered the effective substances to include a specific family of polysaccharides known as beta glucans. They consist beta 1,6 glucan as well as beta-1,3 glucan) and protein, with an impressive molecular weight. Beta glucans are found in a wide variety of medicinal mushrooms. however, the effectiveness of other mushroom beta-glucans on modulating the immune system are quite different. Investigation from the 1980s to today show Maitake extract as the premier variety of beta glucan for immune response.
Who can make this particular extract? Currently the only maker of this particular Maitake extract is Yukiguni Maitake Co. Ltd., based in Niigata, Japan. They keep the patent in Japan and America. Yukiguni was the company that initially commercialized the indoor growth of Grifola frondosa mushrooms. They’re the best medicinal mushrooms for energy (www.peninsuladailynews.com) maker of Maitake in the planet, with multiple certified ISO numbers and certified Koshur.
Unfortunately, this mushroom extract is rather expensive since it requires massive amounts of good quality mushrooms to make a little amount of final product. And due to the high price, the majority of North American mushroom supplement sellers buy a much cheaper alternative from China and then still charge a high price for it. It is about 2500 % cheaper to get Chinese Maitake extract compared to the Japanese patented one. Consumers think that they’re buying the “real thing” that was used in the medical trials at Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. But all they are getting is an unknown blend from a mystical factory of China.