[#2014-12] Maitake Konno, Sensuke at al....

Maitake mushroom (Grifola frondosa) is an edible, medicinal mushroom.  It has been extensively studied for the past 30 years, revealing numberous medicinal properties that could provide great health benefits.  Those include various physiological benefits ranging from immunomodulatory and antitumor activities to treatment for diabetes, hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, viral infections (hepatitis B and human immunodeficiency virus), called “maitake D-fraction” and “maitake SX-fraction”.  A number of scientific studies have been performed on...

[#2014-05] Maitake Freilich, Drew et al....

Chemotherapy is currently one of the most common therapeutic options for cancer patients despite the poor efficacy with considerable side effects. We then examined if D-fraction (DF), a bioactive mushroom extract, could potentiate (poor) anticancer effects of those drugs in vitro. Three urologic cancers, prostate, bladder, and kidney cancers, were tested with various chemotherapeutic drugs and their combinations with DF. Compared to individual drugs alone, combinations of drugs and DF have improved anticancer activity, resulting in the significant (P < 0.05) cell...

BIORESEARCH UPDATE NEWS LETTER #10 Can M...

Immediate Release                      ~ A New Gene Study Suggests Strong Clinical Implications ~   January 20, 2014-  A research group of National Scientific and Technical Research Council in Argentina (CONICET) headed by Dr. Gabriela Balogh has announced that they have successfully identified genes that would be responsible for the tumor supression in human breast cancer cells (MCF-7) by a mushroom extract called Maitake D-Fraction. The results include that D-Fraction may even revert the malignancy of cancer cells by the modification of related...

[#2013-13] Maitake Tsao, Yao-Wei et al. ...

Grifola frondosa, also known as maitake, is a culinary mushroom with immune-enhancing and antitumor effects. Numerous studies have investigated the activity of maitake polysaccharide extracts, but studies of maitake proteins are scarce. In this study, we purified and characterized a new G. frondosa protein, GFP, from maitake fruiting bodies. GFP is a nonglucan heterodimeric 83 kDa protein that consists of two 41 kDa subunits. GFP induced interferon-γ secretion by murine splenocytes and natural killer cells and activated the maturation of bone marrow-derived dendritic...

[#2013-12] Maitake Su, Chun-Han et al In...

This study has demonstrated that the nonpolar fraction of GF possesses potent anti-a-glucosidase activity, and its inhibitory kinetics is competitive inhibition. It was as good as acarbose in inhibiting starch digestion in vitro. This study also suggests that oleic acid and linoleic acid could be the major active compounds of GF contributing to the potent anti-a-glucosidase activity

[#2013-11] Maitake Lei, Hong et al. MT-...

The hypoglycemic effect of an α-glucan (designated here as MT-α-glucan) from the fruit body of the Maitake medicinal mushroom, Grifola frondosa, on a murine type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) model was evaluated. Body weight and levels of fasting plasma glucose, glycosylated hemoglobin, triglycerides, cholesterol, free fatty acid, nitric oxide (NO), NO synthase, inducible NO synthase, and hepatic malondialdehyde content decreased significantly when MT-α-glucan was administered to T2DM mice. The content of serum insulin, hepatic glycogen, and reduced glutathione and the...