Medicinal Mushrooms

  Credit: Daniel Ullrich
  Source: Wikimedia Commons (GFDL)

Classification

Kindgom Fungi
Phylum Basidiomycota
Class Basidiomycetes
Order Dacrymycetales
Family Dacrymycetaceae
Genus Calocera

Calocera cavarae Bres. & Cavara
Calocera flammea Fr.
Calocera stricta Fr.
Calocera viscosa var. cavarae (Bres.) McNabb
Clavaria viscosa Pers.

Yellow staghorn fungus
Staghorn jelly fungus
Jelly antler fungus
Yellow antler fungus
Yellow tuning fork

Fruiting body: 3-10 cm tall; yellow when moist, orange-yellow when dry; variable in shape - may be cupulate, spathulate, resupinate or coralloid; upper branches often forked; smooth.
Flesh: yellow, gelatinous, tough.
Spores: hyaline, smooth, allantoid or elongated, non-amyloid, 7-10 x 3-4.5 µm.
Habitat: saprobic; several to many on dead conifer logs and stumps; Aug - Nov.

The tough, gelatinous texture of Calocera viscosa helps to distinguish it from the more brittle coral fungi. 

Bioactive compounds

The indole metabolite 5-hydroxytryptophan was found in Calocera viscosa mycelium grown in shake cultures (Kholmunzer et al., 2000).

Polysaccharides extracted from the mycelial culture of C. viscosa and administered intraperitoneally into white mice at a dosage of 300 mg/kg inhibited the growth of Sarcoma 180 and Ehrlich solid cancers by 90% (Ohtsuka et al., 1973).

References

Kohlmunzer S, Wegiel J, Muszynska B, Sulkowska-Ziaja K, Gouillot, J.
Indole metabolites in mycelial culture of higher fungi.
Herba Polonica 2000 46(2):98-104.

Ohtsuka S, Ueno S, Yoshikumi C, Hirose F, Ohmura Y, Wada T, Fujii T, Takahashi E.
Polysaccharides having an anticarcinogenic effect and a method of producing them from species of Basidiomycetes.
UK Patent 1331513, 26 September 1973.

 

Last updated: 15-Aug-2008

This entry was posted on Friday, February 1st, 2008 at 9:56 am and is filed under Anti-tumor, Medicinal Effects, Medicinal Mushrooms. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.