Zagreb, Croatia (PRWEB) November 21, 2013
A team of Croatian scientists led by Professors Drazenka Komes and Ksenija Durgo from the Faculty of Food Technology and Biotechnology of the University of Zagreb, and Dr. Ivan Jakopovich from Dr Myko San – Health from Mushrooms have published an important work in the newest issue of International Journal of Medicinal Mushrooms (Begell House, New York). They have tested medicinal mushroom products on 4 types of human cancers (bowel carcinoma, lung adenocarcinoma, small-cell lung cancer, and brain astrocytoma) and found that they can destroy tumor cells by damaging their membranes and mitochondria, the tumor cells’ ‘power plants’.
Medicinal mushrooms have been used in traditional medicine for thousands of years. Scientific research tested medicinal mushrooms for 60 years. More than 50.000 published scientific papers and 400 clinical trials have conclusively proven that they halt or slow down cancer growth. Several official medical drugs against cancer (isolated compounds PSK/Krestin, Lentinan, Schizophyllan in Japan, and PSP in China) and thousands of dietary supplements from medicinal mushrooms are the results of this research.
The Croatian team was trying to explain the impact of polysaccharides and polyphenol content of medicinal mushrooms on the cytotoxic effects (toxicity to cancer cells), and the mechanisms behind their ability to kill cancer cells. As part of the experiment, the researchers have used both simple extracts from one mushroom species or isolated active compounds (PSP, ImmunoBran MGN-3, and Beta glucan), and complex extract combinations of multiple mushroom species (6 products from Dr Myko San–Health from Mushrooms company, based on the research the company has done with Rudjer Boskovic Institute). Exactly this detail enabled them to solve the problem that has been baffling the scientists for an entire decade.
The scientific community was split into two camps on the issue of extract combinations and their interactions. One side expected the blends to reduce the overall cytotoxic effect by diluting the active compounds and introducing negative interactions. The other maintained that the blends would be more effective, as they would simultaneously influence more processes inside the cancer cells. The preceding research efforts gave mixed results.
This research has conclusively proven that quality medicinal mushroom extract combinations possess much stronger antitumor ability than isolated active compounds. The blends were more effective on all tumor types and stopped the growth of cancer cells, in some cases, better than 100-fold doses of simple preparations. It became obvious why the previous research was ambiguous: the efficacy of medicinal mushroom preparation against cancer is not only determined by the dose of the active ingredient(s), but also by the quality of all components of the blend. Therefore, it’s possible to obtain weaker or stronger results using the blends - and it entirely depends on the quality of the blend.
One of the authors, Dr. Ivan Jakopovich, founder of Dr Myko San-Health from Mushroom company, the first producer of medicinal mushroom preparations in Europe explains:
“Medicinal mushroom extracts exhibit strong antitumor effects and can be very helpful, especially combined with standard cancer therapy. They are ‘chronically’ underused in Western medicine.
Extract blends are superior because they induce synergistic enhancement of active compounds. This leads to reduced tumor cell division and earlier cell death, but also activates more immunological mechanisms in the body.
Medicinal mushrooms work differently than most medical drugs. Their extracts are very effective against cancer, but if we try to increase active compound concentrations and purify them, they start to lose effectiveness. This is probably caused by a great number of still undiscovered active compounds working in synergy, but also by the inertness of inactive ingredients, which do not impair the function of the active ones.
The fortunate thing about medicinal mushrooms is that this huge mix of compounds does not cause negative interactions, so we can get very strong products if we extract them just right. It doesn't matter that they are not pharmaceutically 100% pure.”
About Myko San
Myko San is the 1st producer of medicinal mushroom supplements in Europe (since 1990), and a respected leader (the only European company host of the International Medicinal Mushroom Conference, in 2011). Its founder Dr. Ivan Jakopovich is a member of the International Society for Mushroom Science, the New York Academy of Sciences and a member of the editorial board of the most highly ranked medicinal mushroom journal the 'International Journal for Medicinal Mushrooms'. Myko San company and Dr. Jakopovich are known worldwide as one of the most important promoters of the wider use of health benefit potential of medicinal mushrooms and contributors in medicinal mushroom research.
tags: cancer, medicinal mushrooms, extracts, Myko San, research
