Phallus Indusiatus - Bioactive Properties

Bioactive Properties

Medicinal properties have been ascribed to Phallus indusiatus from the time of the Chinese Tang Dynasty when it was described in pharmacopoeia. The fungus was used to treat many inflammatory, stomach, and neural diseases. Southern China's Miao people continue to use it traditionally for a number of afflictions, including injuries and pains, cough, dysentery, enteritis, leukemia, and feebleness, and it has been prescribed clinically as a treatment for laryngitis, leucorrhea, fever, and oliguria (low urine output), diarrhea, hypertension, cough, hyperlipidemia, and in anticancer therapy. Modern science has probed the biochemical basis of these putative medicinal benefits.

The fruit bodies of the fungus contain biologically active polysaccharides. A β--glucan called T-5-N and prepared from alkaline extracts has been shown to have anti-inflammatory properties. Its chemical structure is a linear chain backbone made largely of α-1→3 linked -mannopyranosyl residues, with traces of 1→6 linked -mannopyrosyl residues. The polysaccharide has tumour-suppressing activity against subcutaneously implanted sarcoma 180 (a transplantable, non-metastasizing connective tissue tumour often used in research) in mice.

Another chemical of interest found in P. indusiatus is hydroxymethylfurfural, which has attracted attention as a tyrosinase inhibitor. Tyrosinase catalyzes the initial steps of melanogenesis in mammals, and is responsible for the undesirable browning reactions in damaged fruits during post-harvest handling and processing, and its inhibitors are of interest to the medical, cosmetics, and food industries. Hydroxymethylfurfural, which occurs naturally in several foods, is not associated with serious health risks. P. indusiatus also contains a unique ribonuclease (an enzyme that cuts RNA into smaller components) possessing several biochemical characteristics that differentiate it from other known mushroom ribonucleases.

Two novel sesquiterpenes, dictyophorine A and B, have been identified from the fruit bodies of the fungus. These compounds, based on the eudesmane skeleton (a common structure found in plant-derived flavours and fragrances), are the first eudesmane derivatives isolated from fungi and were found to promote the synthesis of nerve growth factor in astroglial cells. Related compounds isolated and identified from the fungus include three quinazoline derivatives (a class of compounds rare in nature), dictyoquinazol A, B, and C. These chemicals were shown in laboratory tests to have a protective effect on cultured mouse neurons that had been exposed to neurotoxins. A total synthesis for the dictyoquinazols was reported in 2007.

The fungus has long been recognised to have antibacterial properties: the addition of the fungus to soup broth was known to prevent it from spoiling for several days. Experiments have shown that extracts of P. indusiatus have antioxidant in addition to antimicrobial properties. Mushroom extracts were tested against a variety of bacteria and fungi pathogenic to humans, and in some cases had antimicrobial activity comparable to the antibiotics ampicillin, tetracycline, and nystatin. One of the responsible antibiotics, albaflavenone, was isolated in 2011. It is a sesquiterpenoid that was already known from the soil bacterium Streptomyces albidoflavus. The antioxidant effect of the fungus is due the presence of polyphenols whose role in reducing cellular damage from oxidative stress is well-known.

According to a 2001 publication in the International Journal of Medicinal Mushrooms, the smell of the fresh fungus can trigger spontaneous orgasms in human females. In the trial involving 16 women, 6 had orgasms while smelling the fruit body, and the other ten, who received smaller doses, experienced physiological changes such as increased heart rate. All of the 20 men tested considered the smell disgusting. According to the authors, the results suggest that the hormone-like compounds present in the volatile portion of the gleba may have some similarity to human neurotransmitters released in females during sexual activity. The study used the species found in Hawaii, not the edible variety cultivated in China.