Boffin Update: What Science is Doing With Maitake New Chapter Mushrooms

Japanese people have been widely studied in the past several decades, with their seeming natural resistance to many of the common diseases of the Western world. Diet has been found to be an enormous factor in this good health, and as such, scientists have been studying traditional Japanese foods to see how their active ingredients work in the body. Now whole food supplements are incorporating them, including New Chapter organic supplements like Maitake caps and Maitake extract. Today we are doing a scientific rundown of the findings of various studies about maitake mushrooms and their effect on health.

Sugar from Maitake studied for antitumor effects

The department of microbial chemistry at Kobe Pharmaceutical Univeristy found the a polysaccharide (sugar) from maitake mushrooms, also known by their botanical name of grifola frondosa, has antitumor properties. It does this by promoting expression of mRNA in the spleen, as well as enhancing the cytotoxic (cell death, usually cancer cells), of natural killer cells.

Maitake for gastric cancer

This study was done at Tottori University in Japan, in the Division of organ pathology. A water-soluble extract of maitake mushrooms was studied in vitro on four different cell lines of human gastric cancer. A particular type of gastric cancer cell, TMK-1 cells, showed 90% inhibition after treatment with a 10% solution of maitake extract for only 3 days. Of course, in vivo tests will be needed to discover whether this can be translated to use in the body.

Chromium enriched grifola frondosa could be useful for insulin-resistance

Insulin resistance is an important precursor to type II diabetes, one of the biggest killers in the west. Maitake extract, at least of a chromium enriched kind used in this Sichuan University study, could help lower insulin resistance. Mice that were fed the chromium enriched grifola frondosa (CEGF), showed significantly improved glucose disposal rates.

Maitake helps natural killer cells to kill

A study at Kobe Pharmaceutical University has found that maitake mushrooms have an enhancing effect on the action of NK cells, natural killer cells, which are an important component of a strong immune system. D-Fraction, which is a sugar extracted from maitake caps like in the New Chapter organic supplement, can also activate macrophages, dendritic cells and T-cells, as well as inhibiting the growth of tumor cells.

It seems that cancer and insulin resistance are two of the most important potential treatments incorporating maitake … watch this space!