Relishing Medicinal Mushrooms Part I

Editors Note: Consult your physician before consuming or using any mushroom for medicinal purposes; and ensure you have personally researched and understand how to prepare such mushrooms appropriately.

Chef Mazi has been studying herbal medicine and mushrooms for over 10 years, and combining these deep earth wisdoms with fine culinary cuisine. In 2012, Food Is Medicine emerged as a co-project of Chef Zachary Mazi and partner Dr. Juli Mazi, ND; the aim of this organization if to help people worldwide understand that their choices in food matter greatly, and yet the pressure to eat can be lessened exponentially by sticking to intuitive, local and organic options.

Food Is Medicine Coach/Chef Zachary Mazi would like to invite you to take a two part journey into the use of medicinal mushrooms in cooking. In this first part, we will visit the history and use of medicinal mushrooms, and attempt to answer why, at this time in our history, we are suddenly inundated with a massive wealth of new knowledge on the subject. In part 2, which will appear in the April issue of Duff, we will explore in greater detail the medicinal values of many of our commonly loved edibles. Each part will be accompanied by some delicious recipes that Food Is Medicine have created to really relish this delicious medicine.

Mushrooms used as useful allies for humankind date back to before we recorded history. In the Materia Medica of Chinese Medicine, one can find the history of its seemingly mysterious and vast array of plant parts—dried, fresh and powdered—and certain fungi, spanning back to the nearly the beginning of written history, at least to 6000 BC. Elsewhere in the world, the now-famous ice-man—found preserved in ice on the disputed Swiss-Italian border —was found carrying two mushrooms, both polypores: Fomes fomentarius and Piptoporus betuinus(1). The former was thought to be used as both a fire insulator, to carry embers from one place to the next, and simultaneously used as tinder, packed with flint and stone. The latter was used as a blood stopper. Indeed, the use of mushrooms in ritual, or at the very least the mushroom being adored and worshipped, has been found in cave art about 10,000 years ago by the Tasili tribesmen in Northern Africa (now the location is the Sahara desert, but at this early time, it was a lush and green paradise...perhaps the pre-historic garden of Eden?)

But our primitive use of mushrooms certainly has a much greater history even than the recorded history examples above. Of the 22 primate species that eat fungi as part of their diet, 3 of them spend more than 10 percent of their time feeding on fungi. Of these, the Yunnan snub-nosed monkey spends 95% of it feeding time eating lichens, and Goeldi’s monkeys spends up to 63% of its feeding time eating sporocarps(2). It is not apparent whether these primates are using them as food strictly, or as medicines like they do some leaves. These specifics bog western science down. Nevertheless, it is clear that mushroom medicine has been working its magic on our ancestors since time immemorial. Winding a curious path from primate to pauper to priest and to prophet, from folklore to physician, and now to us!

What is most fascinating, historically speaking, is the sudden and almost frenetic burst of enthusiasm for the study and innovation in medicine derived from fungi, in the recent decades. If mushrooms have been a part of our culture and heritage for so long, then why suddenly, in the past 30 years—and even more so in the present day—are we seeing an acceleration in the sciences describing these incredible chemical factories? It appears that the confluence of truly needing the medicines they have to offer, with the instantaneous ability to share our results worldwide with the click of a button is exponentially allowing us to get a glimpse into the vast expanse of mystery that is the Kingdom Fungi.

Mushrooms have a strange and extremely varied means of chemical production. Manufacturing complex and nearly indescribable compounds—some that resemble compounds made by animals, and some completely foreign to our bodies—these amazing creatures are producing toxins and poisons, vitamins and even complex molecule pathways that mitigate oil spills and other environmental disasters.

Like animals, many fungi produce vitamin D when interacting with UV radiation, such as from the sun. Shiitake mushrooms, under the right conditions, have shown to increase their vitamin D content by up to 41,000% in the sun over the course of just one day! Maitake mushrooms are not far behind in the same regard(8). This is a non-reversible chemical reaction, meaning that we can dry our mushrooms in the summer sun and store them until the winter doldrums to get the benefit of their Vitamin D during the darker months. (Even dried mushrooms will undergo this reaction in UV light.)

Like animals, fungi breathe in oxygen, and exhale CO2, freeing the stores of the greenhouse molecule from the decaying wood and detritus on the forest floor and elsewhere. The respiratory similarity requires antibody similarity as well, because the same bacteria and viruses that can attack our cells and systems can attack these oxygen breathing cousins of ours the same way. This is the source of some of the most powerful disease fighting compounds that even the US Department of Defense has noted (for example, for use in the case of a bio-terror attack using small pox)(7). The adapted species have spread a fine mess of life lines branching through time, and the vast number of species estimated stands at anywhere from 1.5–5.1 million species of fungi on the planet. They outnumber plants on the planet almost 6:1, and of these, only 70,000 had been described, including molds, and other non sporophor producing fungi(3).

So what is now fueling the sudden acceleration of interest and of knowledge taking place in this field of science and classification? It may be because we are only aware of just over 1% of the estimated species. There is definite pressure to expand this knowledge—nature abhors a vacuum. It may be because the number of people on the planet is constantly increasing, whilst our ability to share data exponentially doubles with more regular frequency; it may be that the earth itself, under the duress of environmental catastrophe, is reaching out through the proven biological model of success shared by the mycelial mats of fungi and of our own brain: networking and redundancy. Whatever the reason, medicinal mushroom studies are accelerating in interest and significance, and we, dear reader, are present to reap the benefits and witness this monumentally important age in mankind’s history.

Mushrooms and humans have evolved separately on this planet, neither needing the other to survive. As such, the vast array of chemicals that mushrooms produce have far ranging effects on the human body, from educating the body on how to recognize cancer cells more effectively, to causing death and destruction of the internal organs at a fairly rapid pace. And in between these two extremes, lie complex relationships even on the individual level, with some people being deathly allergic to certain mushrooms for which a vast number of people will pay top dollar for example, such as in the case of the matsutake mushroom(4).

What is fascinating about medicinal mushrooms is their relative accessibility, their novel ways of effecting the human immune system and other systems, their effectiveness at relatively accessible doses, and the ease of extracting. With many mushrooms, the whole mushroom is indicated, and small amounts (10 grams [1/3 oz.] dried or 6 oz fresh) is a sufficient amount of material to potentiate the magic in healing. These are doses that are equivalent of a pharmaceutical level, without the pesky side effects. We are indebted to such authors and herbalists as Christopher Hobbs (OR, USA) and Robert Roger (BC, Can), for their tireless work sifting through thousands of works and distilling the modern mushroom materia medica for even easier accessibility.

And while there are numerous compounds that have been isolated by various means of extraction, it is the edible, medicinal mushrooms that offer a shiny promise even further, and it is these mushroom that we shall explore herein. For what is a true medicine if not relished and taken into the body with pleasure; beyond the pleasure of the healer or the healing, but the momentary and fleeting pleasure of the senses! Cooking with medicinal mushrooms, a field yet to be fully discovered and explored, holds promise for such an exquisite combination of ancient wisdom and 21st century indulgence. This uniting of esthetic worlds can only bring us closer to uniting our health and well-being with our everyday practices.

Lets start with a well known mushroom, and a regular for use in medicinal mushroom stocks and broths. The turkey tail mushroom, Trametes versicolor, which is itself difficult to eat due to its very tough flesh, yields both its medicine and its unique sour, musky flavor to mushroom stocks, rices, and soups. If powdered, the mushroom can be eaten; otherwise, it does not add much to the meal, being so tough to chew. Used in conjunction with more fragrant mushrooms like shiitakes, the turkey tail recedes from notice in any dish, perhaps supplying a lingering bitterness.

This mushroom is one of the most widely prescribed medicines for cancer in Japan, because of a special humungous molecule called Polysaccharide K, or PSK. PSK has a molecular weight of approximately 10,000 molecules of water. This heat stable, hot water extractable molecule seems to train the body and its specialized cells, natural killer cells, to be better at recognizing the cancer cells lines in the body, and boost the immune system through various means to help destroy even the most advanced hormone related cancers like prostate and breast cancers. Paul Stamets tells the story of his mother, who with stage 4 breast cancer and three months to live, took the second opinion of a foreward thinking oncologist in Seattle and took PSK containing Turkey Tail capsules in conjunction with her regular pharmaceuticals for 1 year, at which time she had no detectable cancer.(5)

Thankfully, the turkey tail mushroom grows almost everywhere dead wood can be found, is easy to recognize, and it is such a stable medicine, that it last a long time on logs and branches, forming massive colonies. In the US, Bastyr College of Naturopathic Medicine has just been approved by the FDA to begin research on the effectiveness of the whole mushroom in the treatment of cancer and as an adjunct to cancer therapies already in well established. Proving these ‘theories’ is no easy feat, as the mushroom produces many thousands of compounds, which potentially work in tandem to produce its staggering results, and no particularly easy to grasp ‘mechanism of action’(6) as required by the FDA.

The take-away from the story of the turkeytail is a parable that describes many mushrooms waiting at the door of medicine right now. This multi-faceted aspect of immuno-modulating mushroom medicine is common among almost all mushrooms that have some medical benefit. Unfortunately for the rigorous west, this medicine does not desire to fit into our definition of medicine. As its own kingdom, Fungi has its own rules, very different from ours.

Like the mystical Qi of Chinese medicine, the direct mechanism of action is hard to pin down by the western approach to science. It may be that finally, under the humble guise of the simple sporophor that we call a mushroom, the foundation of isolated sciences in the field of medicine—demanding direct answers to too-simple questions—may deliquesce and melt away under the weight of new holistic data. Let Bastyr’s important study be the start of this process. Our acceptance of these bio-remediating (earth medicine) and clinically medicinal mushrooms represent a great turning point in humankind’s history... if we choose to adopt this wisdom more ancient than our species to our benefit. In Part 2 of our this article, we will explore the individual and specific aspects of many of our beloved mushrooms, their uses and their lore. And, of course, recipes that we have developed to enjoy cooking with medicinal mushrooms. So as we close for this session, here are some recipes Food Is Medicine has developed to utilize and relish your medicinal mushrooms.

References

Peintner, U; Poder, R; Pumpel, T (1998). “The iceman’s fungi”. Mycological Research 102 (10): 1153–62. doi:10.1017/S095.375.6298006546.

Hanson, A. M.; Hodge, K. T.; Porter, L. M. (2003). “Mycophagy among Primates”. Mycologist 17: 6. doi:10.1017/S0269915X0300106X.

Blackwell, Meredith; “ Fungi: 1, 2, 3,...5.1 million species?” American Journal of Botany; March 2011 vol. 98; no.3 426-438

Takako Toda, Masao Yamaguchi, Yuko Nakase, et al; “A Case of Anaphylactic Reaction Following Matsutake Mushroom Ingestion: Demonstration of Histamine Release Reaction of Basophils.” Allergy International; doi:10.2332/allergolint.10-CR-0205.

Landau, Elizabeth; “The Forbidden Fruit of Medicinal Mushrooms.” CNN; September 2012; http://www.cnn.com/2012/02/02/health/tedmed-mushroom-man

http://m.bastyr.edu/news/general-news/2012/11/fda-approves-bastyr-turkey-tail-trial-cancer-patients

Isaacson, Andy; Mother Jones Magazine; Nov/Dec 2009. http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2009/11/paul-stamets-mushroom

Stamets, Paul; Fungi Perfecti; August 6th, 2012. http://www.fungi.com/blog/items/place-mushrooms-in-sunlight-to-get-your-vitamin-d.html

Ware, Kendra. “The Many benefits of Agaricus bisporus Extract.” Weight Loss Studies; January, 2013. burnitnowasap.blogspot.com/2013/01/the-many-benefits-of-agaricus-bisporus.html