For Extracts Table

Introduction

Apart from being served in restaurants sautéed with garlic butter and being the major constructive element in fairy circles, most people know very little about mushrooms. The exception perhaps being the minority who have a fringe interest in those varieties with hallucinogenic properties, the magic mushrooms of the 60’s psychedelia generation.

There are today over 1500 varieties of fungi growing in UK ranging from the edible field mushroom, Agaricus campestris, the hallucinogenic Fly Agaric, Amanita muscaria and Psilocybe neo-lanceolata, Liberty Cap, a resident of Hampstead Health, to the deadly poisonous Destroying Angel, Amanita virosa and the aptly named Death Cap, Amanita phalloides.

Worldwide, over 64,000 have been identified. Fungi are unique amongst the plant kingdom, in that they possess no chlorophyll. Thus they can not take part in photosynthesis for their metabolism and have to resort to other means in order to live. Many enjoy symbiotic or parasitic relationship with other plants whilst others are free growing, generally on decaying matter, from which they derive their nutrients. As they contain no chlorophyll, they do not take in carbon dioxide and give off oxygen as do green plants, but respire in the opposite way, similar to animals and are thus net consumers of oxygen.

But as with most plants, animals, minerals of the Earth, the inhabitants of many parts of the World have over the ages thoroughly investigated not only the culinary attributes of fungi, but also their medicinal and cosmetics properties.

There is some debate as to when the penchant for eating mushrooms originated, in fact no one seems to know for sure. Indications are that nomadic hunters as long ago as the last ice age feasted on various local fungi, but it was during classic times that mushrooms came to the fore and their use initially recorded.

In the first century, the physician Nicander eloquently spelled out the dangers of eating the wrong varieties, Dioscorides making similar reference some hundred years later. Greeks and Romans were very partial to mushrooms, and at least one Roman Emperor, the infamous Claudius, succumbed to the toxins of Amanita caesarea, albeit with the helping hands of his scheming third wife Agrippina and a local witch Locusta

However, the beneficial medicinal properties of mushrooms were also recognised and recorded by Dioscorides who described Agaricus, actually a Fomes spp. as being effective against colds, sores, fractures, asthma etc.

In more modern times, the first serious attempt to classify mushrooms was made by the French botanist Clusius, although the famous herbals written by Gerard and Culpeper hardly give mushrooms a mention. Grieve, on the other hand, in "A Modern Herbal" (1), gives fungi a good airing, referring to medicinal and even pharmaceutical status for several species including the Giant Puff Ball, Lycoperdon gigantea, which in addition to being an article of diet for certain native American tribes has been used in England to arrest haemorrhage.

The hallucinogenic properties of mushrooms have been associated with Shamanism in many parts of the world. Nomadic hunters of Northern Europe and Asia have been reported as using Fly Agaric, Amanita muscaria, to induce shamanistic trances. The Koryak people of Eastern Siberia, inhabitants of the shores of the Sea of Okhotsk on the Kamchatka Peninsula, believed that the plants were inhabited by spirits known to them as Wapag man. These spirits of the woods were believed to have left the fungi for the benefit of mankind to enable them to learn something of the temporal world.

One well reported story relates to times of short supply of the fungus and to a strange kind of pecking order in which the most senior shaman. Apparently, the hallucinogen is quickly absorbed into the bloodstream, and into the urine via the kidneys. It continues to be passed around the group in this fashion. Recycling with a difference !!!

In Central and South America also, the local magic mushroom is utilised for shamanistic purposes. Elderly women of the tribes employ Psilocybe mexicana, a relative of our own Hampstead Heath variety, to aid in the prescription of magic and cures. The Psilocybe species contain two hallucinogenic alkaloids, psilocybin and psilocin. Although structurally related chemically to LSD they possess only approximately 1% of its psychotropic activity (2).

Nearer to home, it is believed that witches of the middle ages were well aware of the psychotropic effect of certain mushrooms. It is believed that the act of riding on broomsticks is actually a representation of their use of sticks to administer mushroom potions analy, a well documented route for drugs to enter the bloodstream quickly.

But as with many things botanical, it is the inhabitants of the Pacific rim that seem to have more deeply studied the beneficial properties of these fascinating species. The present article describes the properties of several species from that geographical area in relation to their use in cosmetics formulations.

Perhaps the best known Japanese mushroom is the Shiitake, Lentinus edodes, It is cultivated on oak logs with which it enjoys a parasitic relationship. In the Far East it is revered. Foodwise, it is sliced and stir fried, cooked in soups, canned or pickled. It is nutritious and rich in many essential amino acids.

In both China and Japan, it is considered a revitalising tonic whilst some consider it to enhance sexual performance. It is prescribed to reduce blood pressure and cholesterol, to treat anaemia, diabetes and cancer possibly via a stimulation of the immune system. The chemical lentinan resists carcinogens, an attribute shared by many fungal carbohydrates.

In the Far East, a holistic approach prevails for both health and beauty and a Shiitake mushroom tea is one means used to strengthen, vitalise, energise and tone the body, (3)

The present booklet provides just a brief look at a new, novel source of functional cosmetics ingredients. For a marketing view with a difference, sample the world of fabulous fungi, invoke the magic of mushrooms to your new formulations.

References:

1. Grieve,M, A Modern Herbal, Penguin Books, ISBN 0-14-046440-9
2. Wills, S., The Pharmaceutical Journal, 251, 227-229, (1993)
3. Michelle D.Leigh, The Japanese Way of Beauty, Thorsons, ISBN 0-7225-2976-7

• Jordan, M, Mushroom Magic, Elm Tree Books, London, ISBN 0-241-12844-7
• McDonald Encyclopaedia of Mushrooms