A study published May 21 in BMC Biotechnology reports that a hot-water extract made from cultured enoki mushroom mycelium sharply suppressed an implanted tumor model in mice. The result is eye-catching: researchers calculated 99.79% tumor-growth inhibition, and 10 of the 15 treated mice had complete tumor regression.
What the researchers tested
The team grew a strain of Flammulina filiformis, dried its threadlike mycelium and repeatedly extracted it in hot water. That laboratory preparation is different from the whole enoki mushrooms sold as food.
Researchers injected Ehrlich carcinoma cells into the thigh muscles of male albino mice. One day later, 15 mice began receiving the extract by mouth at 200 milligrams per kilogram of body weight each day. Treatment continued for 10 days, while tumor growth was tracked for six weeks. A separate group of 15 tumor-bearing mice received saline.
The treatment group finished the observation period with far less tumor growth than the saline group. The paper also reports changes in macrophage counts and inflammatory signals that may help explain the response, though its proposed molecular mechanisms were not directly established.
What the study does not show
