Lingzhi (Ganoderma) Research-the Past, Present and Future Perspectives

摘要

Lingzhi (Ganoderma) has attracted international attention as a valuable Chinese herb with a variety of biological activities, including antitumor, immunomodulatory, cardiovascular, respiratory, antihepatotoxic and antinociceptive effects. The diversity in the biological actions of Ganoderma lucidum may be attributed to the fact that it is composed of different chemical entities, the major ones with significant pharmacological activities appear to be triterpenes and polysaccharides. Interestingly, the number of triterpenes and polysaccharides in Lingzhi ranges over 100 different structures. Therefore, Lingzhi extracts with different triterpenes and polysaccharides or combinations of these two groups are most likely to result in different pharmacological activities. Furthermore, the chemical composition of different sources of Lingzhi is highly variable, depending on the species, the growing environment, the cultivation methods and the extraction procedures. This causes confusion regarding the quality of commercially available preparation and the pharmacological effects. While it may be difficult to isolate individual pure compound from Lingzhi, the use of reference standard compound may provide an alternative for quality control with respect to biological actions.