Psilocybin (4-phosphoryloxy-N,N-dimethyltryptamine) is the major psychoactive alkaloid of some species of mushrooms distributed worldwide. These mushrooms represent a growing problem regarding hallucinogenic drug abuse. Despite its experimental medical use in the 1960s, only very few pharmacological data about psilocybin were known until recently. Because of its still growing capacity for abuse...

The edible mushrooms (basidomycetes) have high nutritional value, promote the immune system, and as a source of natural antimicrobial substances have been used to cure bacterial infections since ancient times.Various kinds of proteins with several biological activities are produced by mushrooms. In this research, in order to evaluate antibacterial activity of edible mushrooms, we isolated prote...

Psilocyn and psilocybin can be identified in different stages of developing psilocybe mushrooms. Knowing the various stages of the mushroom development can be useful when receiving evidence from illicit mushroom growing operations. Exhibits from three separate cases were submitted to the drug analysis section of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension Forensic Science Laboratory. Each cas...

Psilocybe semilanceata, Hallucinogenic Mushrooms, Psilocybin, Baeocystin, HPLC The content of tryptamine derivatives in Psilocybe semilanceata, a popular hallucinogenic mushroom, was measured by high-performance liquid chromatography. Most of the 52 samples have been collected at several localities in Switzerland during a 1—5 year period. The content of psilocybin and baeocystin varied in the r...

Mushrooms have unique sensory properties and nutritional values as well as health benefits due to their bioactive compounds, especially beta-glucans. Well-known edible and medicinal mushroom species as well as uncommon or unknown species representing interesting sources of bioactive beta-glucans have been widely studied. Commercially cultivated and wild growing mushrooms were analysed for their...

Considering the importance of diet in prevention of oxidative stress-related diseases including hypertension, this study was undertaken to evaluate the in vitro antioxidant and ACE inhibitory activities of selected culinary-medicinal mushrooms extracted by boiling in water for 30 min. Antioxidant capacity was measured using the following assays: DPPH free radical scavenging activity, β-carotene...

Antioxidant and antimicrobial potentials of extracts obtained from four wild mushrooms, Termitomyces clypeatus (TCE), Termitomyces robustus (TRE), Lentinus subnudus (LSE) and Lenzites species (LZE) collected in Nigeria were investigated. LSE and LZE displayed good scavenging activity against 2, 2-Diphenyl-1-Picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) and ferrous ion radicals at concentration of 2 mg/mL. However, TRE...

AIMS The effect of synthetic media on the submerged mycelial growth and exo-biopolymer production in various edible mushrooms was investigated in shake flask culture. METHODS AND RESULTS Among 19 mushrooms examined, the relatively high yield in mycelial biomass and exo-biopolymer production was achieved in potato malt peptone (PMP) medium. In particular, Ganoderma lucidum NO. 1 and Phellinus ...

FUNGI Volume 2:1 Spring 2009 I AM OFTEN ASKED which medicinal mushrooms our family uses, if we select mushrooms for their flavor or for their medicinal properties, if we prefer wild mushrooms to cultivated ones, and how we preserve and prepare them. The assumption seems to be that we use mushrooms primarily for their medicinal properties and not because they are tasty, culinarily diverse, and n...

Case report “PS,” an 83-year-old woman, was diagnosed in June 2009 with advanced, metastatic inflammatory breast cancer. At the same time, she began chemotherapy with Taxol and Herceptin, she also began taking capsules of turkey tail mushroom daily. The dose was 4 g twice daily (Host Defense Turkey Tail capsules, Fungi Perfecti Laboratories, Kamilche Point, Washington). The turkey tail capsules...