Medicinal Mushrooms

Agaricus atricapillus Batsch
Agaricus cervinus Schaeff.
Agaricus curtisii Berk. & Broome
Agaricus pluteus Batsch
Agaricus pluteus ß rigens Pers.
Hyporrhodius cervinus (Schaeff.) Henn.
Pluteus atricapillus (Batsch) Fayod
Pluteus cervinus P. Kumm.
Pluteus curtisii Berk.
Rhodosporus cervinus (Schaeff.) J. Schröt.

Deer mushroom
Fawn mushroom
Rehbrauner Dachpilz (German)

Cap: 5-12 cm broad, convex, nearly plane in age, umbonate; dark brown to grey-brown, lighter in age; smooth, sometimes streaked with radially oriented fibers, moist; flesh soft, white; odor of radish.
Gills: free, close, white, becoming pinkish to flesh-colored at maturity.
Stem: 5-10 cm tall, 0.5-1.5 cm thick, equal to enlarged at base; white to greyish-brown, sometimes with dark fibrils; veil absent.
Spores: 5.0-7.5 x 4-6 µm, smooth, elliptical.
Spore print: salmon-pink.
Habitat: Solitary to scattered on hardwood and conifer logs, occasionally from buried wood, in sawdust piles or wood chips; fruiting from after the first fall rains through mid-winter.
Edibility: Edible, but taste and texture are mediocre.

Polysaccharides extracted from the mycelial culture of P. cervinus and administered intraperitoneally into white mice at a dosage of 300 mg/kg inhibited the growth of Sarcoma 180 and Ehrlich solid cancers by 100% (Ohtsuka et al., 1973).

Links

Once featured in Tom Volk's Fungus of the Month

Reference

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 modified: 13-Aug-2008

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 23rd, 2008 at 11:21 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.