Maitake Mushroom

Grifola frondosa

The Latin name for Maitake refers to the leaf-like, overlapping fan shaped caps. The Japanese name translates to "dancing mushroom" because it looks like butterflies wildly dancing.

Until cultivation techniques were perfected only 20 years ago, Maitake was only available as a wildcrafted product, therefore Japanese foragers guarded their hunting grounds diligently. This rare quality kept the price prohibitively high.

No longer just popular in Japan, Maitake mushroom has been gaining in popularity on the Natural Products stores shelves for several years now.

Maitake's so-called D-fraction (a 3-branched b-1,6-glucan with aprox. 30% protein) has shown an interleukin -1 stimulating effect. This may be partially responsible for the Maitake mushroom's immune-stimulating effect, which has been shown to shrink tumors more effectively than mitomycin-C- a chemotherapeutic drug.

Studies on rats have shown that both extracts and whole mushroom powder have significantly hypotensive, and triglyceride-lowering properties when given orally. When Maitake was added to the diet of mice with genetically produced diabetes, the levels of blood glucose and triglycerides were reduced.

Another important therapeutic effect is being studied: A hepatoprotective effect was found in extract of Maitake, used on laboratory rats with induced hepatitis. The polysaccharides from Maitake were used in a randomized controlled clinical trial with 32 chronic hepatitis B patients. The recovery rate was reported to be 72% in the Maitake group, and 57% in the control group.

Regarding other human clinical trials, the D-fraction is being studied in medical clinics here in the U.S. for patients with breast and colorectal cancers. In a recent Chinese study, a Maitake extract demonstrated an anticancer effect in 63 patients with lung, stomach, hepatocellular cancers and leukimia.



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