Boost Your Immunity with Gourmet Mushrooms

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Marvelous Maitake

Maitake (Grifola frondosa), also known as "dancing mushroom," might have gotten its name from a time long ago when people who found them reputedly danced for joy—not surprising, considering these treasures were worth their weight in silver! Found in the northern temperate forests of Asia and Europe, eastern Canada and the northeastern United States—and cultivated increasingly in North America—maitake is much in demand by chefs and gourmands for its sublime taste and texture and its distinctive, earthy aroma. It is equally pursued for its medicinal prowess.

Maitake, like shiitake, is an immune booster and cancer fighter. Extracts of its beta-D-glucans administered with whole maitake powder and standard chemotherapy promoted cancer regression or significant symptom improvement in 58 percent of liver cancer patients, 69 percent of breast cancer patients and 62 percent of lung cancer patients (but much less in patients with leukemia, stomach cancer or brain cancer), according to a 2002 report in Alternative Medicine Review. Other clinical studies show that the extracts increase production of interleukin-12, which activates the body’s natural killer cells. Many additional benefits have been indicated for maitake, including possible regulation of cholesterol, diabetes, high blood pressure, viral infection and liver disease.

The Role of Reishi

A rare find in the wild, the Asian reishi (Ganoderma lucidum) mushroom is so bitter you won’t want to bite into its cap. And even if you tried, it would be too woody. In fact, reishi’s polished hardness and bonsai-evoking appearance has made it a prized shelf ornament. But its medicinal properties have won many North American fans, who readily acquire imported reishi from China. The mushroom is traditionally sliced and simmered for tea or boiled in soups, then the pieces are discarded.

Reishi’s bitter properties are due to its rich supply of terpenoids, elite plant chemicals that can work as antioxidants, immune-system stimulants, blood pressure regulators and anti-cholesterol agents. Reishi’s terpenoids include ganoderic acid, ganaderiol and lucidumol, all with antiviral properties. Together with its other constituents—coumarins, which are natural blood thinners; phospholipids, which are anti-inflammatory and nerve protective; and the beta-D-glucans—reishi stocks a comprehensive medicinal cabinet that may well render it the mushroom of choice for health.

Dried reishi powder has been a popular anticancer agent in China since ancient times. A review in Integrative Cancer Therapies indicates that it deters even highly invasive breast and prostate cancer cells from spreading and becoming established in the body. And a clinical study from Immunological Investigations found that patients with advanced-stage cancer showed improvements in their immune responses when treated with reishi polysaccharide extracts for 12 weeks.

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