Archive for June 24th, 2009

morel mushrooms

Some scientists believe that the ability of mushrooms to break down organic matter in nature is linked to their medicinal properties for humans. Fungi live in a hostile environment in the midst of decay at the harshest layer of the ecosystem. They encounter disease-causing pathogens far more frequently than other life-forms. To survive, they must have proactive, healthy immune functions. Some scientists believe that the antipathogenic properties developed by mushrooms as a survival mechanism are precisely what make them valuable to the human immune system.

Mushrooms are potent medicines and contain many nutrients. Mushrooms, which grow so close to the earth, have a grounding effect. When you take a medicinal mushroom, you get back in touch with the essential forces of the earth. You tap into the sustaining power that incites the animal to endeavor and the plant to grow no matter what the obstacle. Humankind has been nourished by medicinal mushrooms for many centuries. We look forward to new discoveries by which modern science will harness mushrooms’ medicinal power for the good of humankind in the years to come.

Many claims are made for medicinal mushrooms. Sometimes out of sheer enthusiasm and sometimes for commercial motives, authors make exaggerated claims. A few of these claims border on the outlandish. For example, the label on a medicinal mushroom product from China claims the following: “Effective on cancer, AIDS, hepatitis, headaches, colds, and impotence.” Claims like these raise false hopes. Worse, they cause people to be cynical about medicinal mushrooms and herbal remedies in general.

No medicinal mushroom is a cure-all and no mushroom can make the body unassailable to disease. What mushrooms can do is stimulate the immune response, giving a powerful boost to the functions of the body that are already in place for preventing and fighting disease. Only a balanced view can convince the doubters and promote medicinal mushrooms as a means of healing the body and preventing disease.

mushrooms

What we call a “mushroom” is the fruit-body of a fungus, the reproductive part of the fungus that grows above ground and releases spores, the seedlike elements from which new fungi are made. Much as fruit is the reproductive organ of a fruit tree, a mushroom is the reproductive organ of a fungus.Typically, spores sprout from the gills, the thin brown tissue found on the underside of the mushroom cap. Borne by the wind, some kinds of spores are capable of traveling great distances from the fruit-body to start their own fungus colonies. Mushrooms produce prodigious numbers of spores.

A giant puffball, for example, may produce 20 trillion: it has been calculated that if every spore from the giant puffball sprouted and grew to maturity, it would form a mass three times the size of the sun!

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