Medicinal Mushrooms

The irregularly stellate form of Scleroderma polyrhizum (J.F. Gmel.) Pers.
  Credit: Jean-Jacques Milan
  Source: Wikipedia Commons

Lycoperdon polyrhizon J.F. Gmel.
  Syst. Nat. 2: 1464 (1796)
Scleroderma geaster Fr.
  Syst. mycol. (Lundae) 3(1): 46 (1829)
Scleroderma polyrhizon

Earthstar scleroderma
Dead man's hand

Fruiting body: subglobose to globose, sometimes flattened or irregular; sporocarp 4-13 cm diameter; color initially whitish, then yellowish or browish; base sessile with rhizoid mass; sometimes buried or partially buried (hypogeous) before maturity.
Exoperidium: coffee color, up to 5 mm thickness, smooth or squamulose, often splitting open irregularly to form recurved fins in a stellate manner.
Gleba: when young, purple and firm with oval locules separated by white membranes; in older specimens black-brown and powdery.
Odor: none
Spore mass: dark brown.
Spores: subreticulate, globose, thick-walled, 6-10 µm diameter with spines up to 0.8 µm long.
Habitat: solitary to gregarious, on hard clay or sandy soil under hardwoods, along roads, in gravel or other poor soils.
Edibility: consumption not advised; Miller and Miller (2006) warn of gastric disturbance and type 8 toxins.

This mushroom is on the red list of threatened fungi in Japan.

The fruitbodies of Scleroderma polyrhizum have been used in traditional Chinese medicine for the treatment of detumescence and hemostasis (Gong et al., 2005).

Bioactive compounds/Antitumor/Antiinflammatory

Three nitrogen compounds have been isolated and purified from the fruit bodies of S. polyrhizum, determined to be N,N-dimethylphenylalanine, 2-N,N,N-trimethyl-phenylalanine, 2-trimethyl-ammonio-3–(3-indolyl)propionate (Gong et al., 2005).

Fruit bodies have also been shown to contain the steroids ergosta-4,6,8(14),22-tetraen-3-one and ergosterol peroxide (5α,8α-epidoxyergosta-6,22-dien-3β-ol) as well as the fatty acids palmitate and oleate (Gonzalez et al., 1983). Ergosterol peroxide is a known major anti-cancer and antiinflammatory sterol produced by a variety of medicinal mushrooms (see for example Takei et al., 2005 or Kobori et al., 2007).

Links

Pictures of fruiting bodies and spores at Mushroomhobby
Mushroom Expert
Key to the Sclerodermataceae in the Pacific Northwest

References

Gong XL, Zeng RS, Luo SM.
Chemical constituents from the fruit bodies of Scleroderma polyrhizum.
Nat Prod Res Dev. 2005 17(4):431-3.
Abstract from NPRD online

Gonzalez, AG, Barrera, JB, Marante, FJT.
The steroids and fatty-acids of the Basidiomycete Scleroderma polyrhizum.
Phytochem. 1983 22(4):1049-50.

Kobori M, Yoshida M, Ohnishi-Kameyama M, Shinmoto H.
Ergosterol peroxide from an edible mushroom suppresses inflammatory responses in RAW264.7 macrophages and growth of HT29 colon adenocarcinoma cells.
Br. J. Pharmacol. 2007. 150:209-19.
Abstract

Miller OK, Miller H. (2006).
North American Mushrooms: A Field Guide to Edible and Inedible Fungi.
Globe Pequot Press, 583 pp.
ISBN:0762731095

Takei T, Yoshida M, Ohnishi-Kameyama M, Kobori M.
Ergosterol peroxide, an apoptosis-inducing component isolated from Sarcodon aspratus (Berk.) S. Ito.
Biosci Biotechnol Biochem. 2005 69(1):212-5.
Abstract from CabAbstracts

Last modified: 28-July-2008

This entry was posted on Saturday, May 24th, 2008 at 10:47 pm and is filed under Anti-tumor, Antiinflammatory, 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.