intro and mi huan su

[Guest guest]

Hi, My name's Gus Turpin. I finished at Five Branches in '96 with a

little time at OCOM and NCNM before that. I've been more or less

involved with Asian and Western herbs for over 20 yrs.

I have a small herbal supplement biz and do occasional business and

personal consults (mostly diet and herbs).

Hi Yehuda, mi huan is Armillaria mellea, A.K.A. the honey mushroom

or oakroot fungus (it sometimes is a plant parasite and is sometimes

symbiotic with them). The constituents seem to vary somewhat with the

host, being poisonous when grown on buckeye, for example. I'm not sure

what they grow the extract in Chinatown on. It's quite variable in the

wild and Aurora (Mushrooms Demystified) says it's actually a group of

closely related species. I sometimes collect them for the table (they

grow wild around here) and they are just OK as far as edibilty goes in

my opinion.

Chris Hobbs in his 'Medicinal Mushrooms' mentions that it's quite

nutritious and lists many Chinese studies and some TCM theory. For

example it's said to be sweet and cold, going to the L, LV, ST and LI.

In addition to epilepsy and other internal wind it's also used for dry

skin, ophthalmia, tinnitis, insomnia, lumbago, rickets, leg pains,

limb numbness and to prevent some respiratory and digestive problems.

In studies it seems to increase cerebral blood flow, reduce peripheral

and coronary vascular resistance, reduce heart rate, and is sedative

in addition to the more famous anti-convulsant activity. It or it's

constituents are also somewhat cerebral protective, antibiotic,

antitumor and protect from ionizing radiation. Human studies have

shown benefits including reducing symptoms of both essential and renal

hypertension as well as neurasthenia.

PubMed has several studies as well, here are some-

 

Zhongguo Zhong Yao Za Zhi. 2005 Feb;30(4):283-6.

[Protective effect of Armillaria mellea polysaccharide on mice

bone marrow cell damage caused by cyclophosphamide]

[Article in Chinese]

Li YP, Wu KF, Liu Y.

Guangdong Key Laboratory for Research Development of Natural Drug,

Zhanjiang 524023, China. liyp0406

OBJECTIVE: To observe the effect of Armillaria mellea

polysaccharide on mice bone marrow cells damage caused by

Cyclophosphamide. METHOD: Kunming purebred mice were used and

stochastic divided into 5 groups: normal control group, positive

control group (rhG-CSF 20 microg x kg(-1) x d(-1)), damage group of

Cyclophosphamide (150 mg x kg(-1) x d(-1)), the protective group with

A. mellea polysaccharide, low dose (25.0 mg x kg(-1) x d(-1)) and high

dose (50.0 mg x kg(-1) x d(-1)). Positive control was s.c. rhGCSF 6 d

and i.p. Cyclophosphamide 3 d. A. mellea polysaccharide was i.p. 8 d.

and Cyclophosphamide i.p. 3 d. WBC, RBC, PLT, BMNC were counted in

peripheral blood and bone marrow cells. The myelogram were analyzed in

bone marrow. RESULT: The WBC, RBC, PLT, BMNC of protective group and

positive control group were higher than damage group (P < 0.01)

significantly high dose group increaser than low dose group in

protective group the numbed of Promyelocytic and lobulation nuclear of

marrow. CONCLUSION: A. mellea polysaccharide has preferably protective

effect on damaging mice bone marrow cell caused by Cyclophosphamide.

PMID: 15724408 [PubMed - in process]

 

Planta Med. 1990 Feb;56(1):48-52.

A novel N6-substituted adenosine isolated from mi huan jun

(Armillaria mellea) as a cerebral-protecting compound.

Watanabe N, Obuchi T, Tamai M, Araki H, Omura S, Yang JS, Yu DQ,

Liang XT, Huan JH.

Research Center, Taisho Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., Saitama, Japan.

Successive purification of a crude extract of cultured Mi Huan Jun

mycelia, followed by an assay of the effect on complete ischemia in

mice, led to the isolation of a new compound with cerebral protecting

activity, hereafter designated as AMG-1. The structure of AMG-1 was

proposed as being

6-(5-hydroxy-2-pyridyl-methylamino)-9-beta-ribofuranosylpurine (1) on

the basis of its UV, mass, 1H-NMR, and 13C-NMR spectra.

PMID: 2356243 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

 

Zhongguo Yi Xue Ke Xue Yuan Xue Bao. 2001 Apr;23(2):150-3.

[The changes of cell structure in the courses of Armillaria mellea

penetrating the nutritional stems of Gastrodia elata]

[Article in Chinese]

Xu JT.

Department of Mycology, Institute of Medicinal Plant Development,

CAMS, PUMC, Beijing 100094, China. jintangxu

OBJECTIVE: To study the cell structure changes of Gastrodia elata

after Armillaria mellea infection as well as the nutritional resource

of this important medicinal plant. METHOD: Observation of the serial

sections on the nutritional stems of G. elata, and measure new corms

of G. elata when cut off the old corms connection with rhizomorph of

A. mellea. RESULT: After G. elata nutritional stems infected by A.

mellea, the rhizomorph of A. mellea separate into several hyphal

layers and penetrate hyphal stream which infect into the cells of

cortex layer in the direction of outside and infect directly into

layer cells in the direction of inside, these hypha can be used the

nutrition of G. elata the new corms will be stop growth if cut off the

rhizomorph of A. mellea connected with G. elata. CONCLUSION: After the

rhizomorph of A. mellea infected G. elata nutritional stems, hyphal

coils and the hyphal stream will breakthrough passage cells as well as

large cells surround the whole nutritional stems, so the passage cells

is the key nutritional resource in the whole growth period of G. elata.

PMID: 12905892 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

 

>>Is anyone familiar with studies on the fungus mi huan which grows from

the gastrodia (tian ma) plant, and whose " anti-liver wind " properties

apparently are significantly stronger than the mother plant Tian Ma? It

is sold in capsule form in Chinatown LA, is mentioned in Naeser's book on

Patents, and I have been experimenting with it with Chana over the last 2

days, to calm her tremors and to prevent seizures, with pretty amazing

results. We will see Dr. Zhang this evening.

 

Yehuda