A Comparison Study of the Anticancerous Activity and Mechanism of Ethanolic Extracts from Different Ganoderma lucidum (W.Curt.:Fr.) Lloyd Strains

摘要

Ganoderma lucidum (Ling Zhi or Reishi), a traditional Chinese medicine, has been used to promote health and prolong the life span in China for thousands of years. The evidence shows that triterpenes are the main effective components of G. lucidum. Some triterpenes extracted from G. lucidum fruiting body can effectively inhibit the proliferation of tumor cells in vitro, such as human hepatoma cells, cervix uteri tumor cells, breast cancer cells, and promyelocytic leukemia cells. Compared to the cultivation of G. lucidum fruiting body, the liquid fermentation technique can achieve an industrial scale production with rigidly controlled manufacture conditions. It may be the future for producing high-quality Ganoderma products. However, there has not been much research addressed to the antitumor activity of triterpenes from mycelia. Only a few showed that triterpenes from mycelia could inhibit the proliferation of human hepatoma cells.