Growing Mushroom » and http://www.mushroomgrowers.org Mon, 26 Jul 2010 22:44:05 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 en hourly 1 Research Suggests That Maitake Mushroom Can Boost the Immune System and More http://www.mushroomgrowers.org/research-suggests-that-maitake-mushroom-can-boost-the-immune-system-and-more http://www.mushroomgrowers.org/research-suggests-that-maitake-mushroom-can-boost-the-immune-system-and-more#comments Tue, 29 Dec 2009 13:50:30 +0000 Admin http://www.mushroomgrowers.org/?p=35 Maitake also can be found thriving in northeastern Japan and parts of Europe. Also called dancing mushroom because of people dancing for joy when they found the maitake mushroom, one legend explains that the name refers to the fact that maitake overlaps other forms of fungi and has the appearance of butterfly wings flapping in a dance.

Before 1979 maitake could only be found in the wild. Beta D-glucan is the powerful polysaccharide that is found in maitake, a compound that helps to stimulate the immune response.

Studies have found that maitake mushroom has the ability to reduce blood pressure in laboratory experiments that took place on animals. Maitake may also be able to help lower blood cholesterol levels, which is a major factor in fighting and preventing heart disease. Demonstrating a hepato-protective effect, maitake works against toxins and potential liver damage. Each patient was give maitake extract, with the results showing that 72 percent recovered while only 57 percent of the group the used traditional therapy recovered.

As cancer continues to be leading cause of death in the western world, Human studies are beginning to find that D-fraction polysaccharides in maitake mushroom can help to treat various types of cancer.

]]> http://www.mushroomgrowers.org/research-suggests-that-maitake-mushroom-can-boost-the-immune-system-and-more/feed 0 Hair and Mushrooms to the Rescue! http://www.mushroomgrowers.org/hair-and-mushrooms-to-the-rescue http://www.mushroomgrowers.org/hair-and-mushrooms-to-the-rescue#comments Sat, 07 Nov 2009 11:28:04 +0000 Admin http://www.mushroomgrowers.org/?p=20 Any major oil spill causes great environmental damage. The oil spill that took place on the San Francisco Bay in 2007 resulted in spillage of 58,000 gallons of bunker fuel from the container ship Cosco Busan.

But what makes the San Francisco Oil Spill unusual, is the oil spill cleanup technique that was adopted. A group of volunteers cleaned San Francisco’s beaches using unconventional products, namely human hair and mushrooms. Though unconventional, it is an organic and eco-friendly way of cleaning up oil spills.

Hair is a natural absorbent that soaks oil very well. In the San Francisco Oil Spill, masses of matted hair the size of a doormat were used to soak up oil. (These mats are woven from human hair donated by salons.) After the visible effect in the San Francisco oil spill, others have also started using these for cleaning up oil spills.

You must be wondering where mushrooms come into the picture in this whole process. Oyster mushrooms have the power to convert toxic oil to compost. In the San Francisco oil spill, once the hair mats had soaked up the oil, oyster mushrooms were layered between these mats. In about 12 weeks, these mushrooms not only absorbed but turned these oil-soaked mats into non-toxic compost.

The success of using hair and mushrooms in the San Francisco oil spill cleanup calls for more such innovative, cost-effective, and eco-friendly techniques of cleaning oil spills. One such eco-friendly technique that has proved to be effective in oil spill cleanup is bioremediation technology.

Oil Gone Easy S-200 is an oil stain remover that makes use of bioremediation technology. Instead of toxic chemicals, microorganisms present in the atmosphere are used to degrade the harmful hydrocarbons present in the oil. Thus, this eco-friendly product cleans oil stains without causing any harm to the environment.

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