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This study was initiated in order to investigate the anticancer and immunomodulating activities of crude polysaccharides extracted in methanol, neutral saline, and hot water (hereinafter referred to as Fr. MeOH, Fr. NaCl, and Fr. HW, respectively) from the fruiting bodies of Panellus serotinus. Content of β-glucan and protein in Fr. MeOH, Fr. NaCl, and Fr. HW extracts of P. serotinus ranged from 22.92~28.52 g/100 g and 3.24-3.68 g/100 g, respectively. In vitro cytotoxicity tests, none of the various fractions of crude polysaccharides were cytotoxic against sarcoma 180, HT-29, NIH3T3, and RAW 264.7 cell lines at the tested concentration. Intraperitoneal injection with crude polysaccharides resulted in a life prolongation effect of 23.53-44.71% in mice previously inoculated with sarcoma 180. Treatment with Fr. HW resulted in an increase in the numbers of spleen cells by 1.3 fold at the concentration of 50 μg/mL compared with control. Treatment with Fr. NaCl resulted in improvement of the immuno-potentiating activity of B lymphocytes by increasing the alkaline phosphatase activity by 1.4 fold, compared with control, at the concentration of 200 μg/mL. Among the three fractions, maximum nitric oxide (13.48 μM) was recorded at 500 μg/mL in Fr. HW. Production of tumor necrosis factor alpha, interleukin-1β, and interleukin-6 was significantly higher, compared to the positive control, concanavalin A, at the tested concentration. Therefore, treatment with crude polysaccharides extracted from the fruiting body of P. serotinus could result in improvement of antitumor activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigated diet supplementation with shiitake mushroom fruiting bodies on biochemical and histological changes in hypercholesterolemic rats. Six-wk old female Sprague-Dawley albino rats were divided into three groups of 10 rats each. A diet containing 5% Lentinus edodes fruiting bodies given to hypercholesterolemic rats reduced plasma total cholesterol, triglyceride, low-density lipoprotein (LDL), total lipid, phospholipids, and the LDL/high-density lipoprotein ratio by 34.33, 53.21, 75.00, 34.66, 25.73, and 71.43%, respectively. Feeding mushroom also significantly reduced body weight in hypercholesterolemic rats. However, it had no detrimental effects on plasma albumin, total bilirubin, direct bilirubin, creatinine, blood urea nitrogen, uric acid, glucose, total protein, calcium, sodium, potassium, chloride, inorganic phosphate, magnesium, or enzyme profiles. Feeding mushroom increased total lipid and cholesterol excretion in feces. The plasma lipoprotein fraction, separated by agarose gel electrophoresis, indicated that L. edodes significantly reduced plasma β and pre-β-lipoprotein but increased α-lipoprotein. A histological study of hepatic cells by conventional hematoxylin-eosin and oil red-O staining showed normal findings for mushroom-fed hypercholesterolemic rats. These results suggest that shiitake mushrooms could be recommended as a natural cholesterol lowering substance in the diet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cellular damage caused by reactive oxygen species has been implicated in several diseases, thus establishing a significant role for antioxidants in maintaining human health. Acetone, methanol, and hot water extracts of Pleurotus citrinopileatus were evaluated for their antioxidant activities against β-carotene-linoleic acid and 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radicals, reducing power, ferrous ion-chelating abilities, and xanthine oxidase inhibitory activities. In addition, the tyrosinase inhibitory effects and phenolic compound contents of the extracts were also analyzed. Methanol and acetone extracts of P. citrinopileatus showed stronger inhibition of β-carotene-linoleic acid compared to the hot water extract. Methanol extract (8 mg/mL) showed a significantly high reducing power of 2.92 compared to the other extracts. The hot water extract was more effective than the acetone and methanole extracts for scavenging DPPH radicals. The strongest chelating effect (92.72%) was obtained with 1.0 mg/mL of acetone extract. High performance liquid chromatography analysis detected eight phenolic compounds, including gallic acid, protocatechuic acid, chlorogenic acid, ferulic acid, naringenin, hesperetin, formononetin, and biochanin-A, in an acetonitrile and hydrochloric acid (5 : 1) solvent extract. Xanthine oxidase and tyrosinase inhibitory activities of the acetone, methanol, and hot water extracts increased with increasing concentration. This study suggests that fruiting bodies of P. citrinopileatus can potentially be used as a readily accessible source of natural antioxidants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]