The efficacy and function of Lingzhi
“Shennong’s Herbal Classic” records that “the best medicine nourishes life, the middle medicine nourishes nature, and the lower medicine cures diseases.” In simple terms, Chinese medicinal materials are divided into three grades: the best, the middle, and the lowest. Among them, the best Chinese medicinal materials are non-toxic and tonic, suitable for daily health care. Ganoderma lucidum is one of the best Chinese medicinal materials.
Ganoderma lucidum is a treasure of traditional Chinese medicinal materials in my country. Since ancient times, it has been a totem of the royal family, the embodiment of good luck, and a symbol of longevity and health. It is known as China’s “Four Great Immortal Grasses” together with ginseng, Polygonum multiflorum and Cordyceps sinensis.
Five active ingredients of Ganoderma lucidum
Ganoderma lucidum is the fruiting body of the fungus Ganoderma lucidum of the Polyporaceae family. It can be harvested throughout the year and used as medicine or food after being dried in the shade or in the sun. Currently, most of the red Ganoderma lucidum on the market is reddish-brown on the surface.
Modern research has found that Ganoderma lucidum is rich in the following active ingredients, mainly including Ganoderma lucidum polysaccharides, Ganoderma lucidum triterpenes, sterol compounds, proteins and amino acids.
01 Ganoderma lucidum polysaccharides
Polysaccharides are an extremely important class of active substances in Ganoderma lucidum, accounting for about 10% of the dry mass of Ganoderma lucidum, and are mainly distributed in the fruiting bodies, spores and mycelium of Ganoderma lucidum. There are various methods for extracting polysaccharides, including hot water extraction, dilute acid-base extraction, microwave extraction, ultrasonic extraction and microwave-assisted ultrasonic extraction. The biological activity of polysaccharides is closely related to their structure and relative molecular mass. Most of them are composed of monosaccharides such as arabinosyl, galactosyl, glucosyl, xylosyl and mannosyl, forming different structures of homopolysaccharides and heteropolysaccharides.
Ganoderma lucidum polysaccharides have shown significant effects in regulating the immune system, anti-tumor, inhibiting angiogenesis, lowering blood sugar, protecting the liver, anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidation and scavenging free radicals, and anti-aging.
02 Ganoderma lucidum triterpenes
Ganoderma lucidum triterpenes are another important nutrient in Ganoderma lucidum. They are highly oxidized lanostane derivatives. So far, scientists have isolated more than 130 triterpenoids from Ganoderma lucidum, which are mainly divided into tetracyclic lanolinane triterpenes and pentacyclic triterpenes, and can be divided into three types according to the carbon number: C30, C27 and C24.
Ganoderma lucidum triterpenes have a wide range of pharmacological effects, including anti-tumor, anti-virus, liver protection, anti-aging, lowering blood pressure and blood lipids, and anti-Parkinson’s disease.
03 Sterol compounds
Most of the sterol compounds in Ganoderma lucidum are ergosterols, and a few are cholesterol. Ergosterol is an important component of fungal cell membranes and one of the characteristic compounds of fungal organisms. Its content can reach 0.3%-2.5%. Ergosterol and peroxyergosterol show effects in inhibiting tumor cell growth, but their action pathways are different.
Ganoderma lucidum sterol extracts have significant effects in improving human immunity, lowering blood cholesterol levels, preventing prostate diseases, and alleviating hypoxia of cerebral cortical neurons. By adopting technologies such as supercritical CO2 extraction, the experimental conditions can be optimized and the extraction rate of ergosterol can be improved.
04 Proteins and amino acids
Ganoderma lucidum is rich in proteins, which have good health-care effects. The proteins in Ganoderma lucidum mainly include fungal immunomodulatory proteins, glycoproteins, lectins and enzymes.
Studies have shown that Ganoderma lucidum protein extracts have antioxidant and antibacterial effects. For example, crude protein from Ganoderma lucidum mycelium and fruiting bodies showed significant activity in antioxidant, antibacterial and DNA protection activities, among which mycelium protein extracts can protect DNA from damage by hydroxyl radicals.
05 Other compounds
In addition to the above-mentioned main active ingredients, Ganoderma lucidum also contains a variety of compounds such as flavonoids, nucleosides, vitamins, trace elements, organic volatiles, organic acids and fatty acids.
These compounds play an indispensable role in the health and medicinal value of Ganoderma lucidum, and together they constitute a complex and effective active system of Ganoderma lucidum, a natural medicine.
Six major health effects of Lingzhi
Lingzhi is mild in nature, sweet in taste, and enters the heart, lung, liver, and kidney meridians. It has many functions such as nourishing the heart and calming the mind, replenishing qi and calming asthma, and nourishing and strengthening.
01 Nourishing the heart and calming the mind, protecting the heart and brain
In the fast-paced modern life, insomnia and anxiety have become a problem for many people. Lingzhi enters the heart meridian, which can effectively replenish the heart qi, nourish the heart blood, and calm the mind. It has a significant improvement effect on symptoms such as restlessness, insomnia, and memory loss caused by insufficient qi and blood.
Modern research shows that Lingzhi is beneficial to cardiovascular and cerebrovascular health. Researchers have found that Lingzhi has an anti-lipid peroxidation effect on rat vascular smooth muscle cells. Its anti-atherosclerotic mechanism may be related to its anti-lipid peroxidation reaction caused by reactive oxygen and enhancing the activity of antioxidant enzymes in the body. For patients with hyperlipidemia, Lingzhi can significantly reduce blood cholesterol, lipoproteins, and triglyceride levels, and can play a certain preventive role in atherosclerosis. Lingzhi can also improve hemodynamics, reduce whole blood and plasma viscosity, improve local microcirculation, and inhibit platelet aggregation.
02 Replenishing Qi and relieving asthma, relieving cough and removing phlegm
Lingzhi enters the lung meridian and has the effects of replenishing lung qi, relieving cough and relieving asthma. It is often used in cases of long-term cough and asthma, which belong to the situation of lung qi deficiency. Modern research has found that the therapeutic mechanism of Lingzhi for chronic bronchitis is mainly achieved through “nourishing and strengthening, strengthening the body and consolidating the foundation”. Relevant researchers used mice as experimental animals to conduct experiments on the prevention and treatment of respiratory inflammation with Lingzhi extract. The results showed that Lingzhi extract can significantly enhance the delayed skin hypersensitivity reaction caused by dinitrochlorobenzene, and its OD value is 40.14% higher than the control. It can be seen that Lingzhi extract has the effect of relieving cough and removing phlegm, and has a good effect on chronic bronchitis.
03 Replenishing and strengthening, fighting aging
Lingzhi is known as the “immortal grass”, and its ability to replenish the five internal organs and consolidate the foundation is highly praised by doctors. The “treatment of asthenia” recorded in the Compendium of Materia Medica is a high-level summary of its effects in strengthening physical fitness and prolonging life. Whether it is loss of appetite and weight loss caused by physical weakness, or people with weak physical fitness and fatigue, Lingzhi can provide gentle and lasting nourishment, and it is not easy to cause internal heat, which truly achieves “nourishing but not greasy”.
Modern research shows that one of the characteristics of human aging is the decline in the biosynthesis and repair ability of nucleic acids and proteins. Relevant experiments have shown that the water extract of Ganoderma lucidum can significantly restore the immune function of the aging body, and restore the body’s humoral immunity and cellular immunity to adult levels. This is one of the important mechanisms of Lingzhi’s anti-aging. There are also experiments that have found that Ganoderma lucidum polysaccharides can promote the synthesis of serum albumin and liver protein by hepatocytes, increase the level of liver homogenate cytochrome P-450, promote the synthesis of bone marrow cell protein, and promote the division and proliferation of bone marrow cells. This may also be one of the important mechanisms of Lingzhi to prevent aging.
04 Reduce blood sugar and protect kidneys
Modern research has found that Ganoderma lucidum has a significant regulatory effect on the sugar and lipid metabolism disorders of diabetic rats, and significantly reduces the urinary microalbumin excretion of early diabetic nephropathy rats, causing the body weight of diabetic rats to increase significantly, the renal index to decrease, and the serum total protein and albumin to increase. Some scholars have pointed out that Ganoderma lucidum can inhibit the aggregation of extracellular matrix type IV collagen by upregulating the expression of matrix metalloproteinase 2 and metalloproteinase 9, thereby alleviating the early kidney damage caused by diabetes.
05 Protect liver and detoxify, promote metabolism
Ganoderma lucidum peptides, polysaccharides, triterpenoids and their synergistic liver protection effects. Studies have shown that in the D-GalN liver injury model experiment, GLP (150mg/kg·bw), GLPS (800mg/kg·bw), Ganoderma lucidum triterpenoids (GLT) (100mg/kg·bw) and the combination of the three can significantly reduce the ALT and AST activities in mouse serum, and can also significantly inhibit the SOD/GSH-PX activity, the decrease in GSH content and the increase in MDA content in liver homogenate (p < 0.01); the liver cell lesions of mice in the combination group of the three were significantly improved or recovered, and the effect was better than that of the single group. Promoting liver protein and nucleic acid metabolism may be one of the mechanisms of Ganoderma lucidum’s liver protection and detoxification effects.
06Immunomodulation, fighting tumors
Modern scientific research provides scientific evidence for the traditional efficacy of Ganoderma lucidum. Ganoderma lucidum polysaccharides, triterpenoids and other active ingredients have been found to have significant immunomodulatory effects, which can enhance the body’s nonspecific immune function, fight infection and reduce inflammatory response. More importantly, Ganoderma lucidum has shown unique value in the adjuvant treatment of tumors. It can reduce the side effects of radiotherapy and chemotherapy, improve the quality of life of tumor patients, and become one of the important auxiliary means in many programs.
References:
1. Lv Jingxue, Lang Yan, Wu Qinghong, et al. Research progress on the main active ingredients and biological activities of Ganoderma lucidum [J]. Shandong Chemical Industry, 2024, 53(05):54-56.
2. Guangdong Provincial Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine – June 21, 2024 – “Stomach Health｜Why do you still eat Ganoderma lucidum in summer? There are these benefits! “
3. Qi Aihua, Sun Yanxia, Li Wei, et al. Medicinal value of Ganoderma lucidum [J]. Rural Economy and Science and Technology, 2018, 29(10):141-142.