7 replies to this topic

[phernandez]

Hericium erinaceus, aka Monkey Head Mushroom aka Lion's Mane Mushroom, "Inducer of NGF Synthesis", promising against dementia...

I've taken the mushroom powder for some time, and experienced the benefits, however mild. Funny, it's my 19 y/o dachshund's favorite food for some reason, and it gives him a good boost. My only problem is that the straight mushroom powder, which is available over the internet, has a lot of indigestible carbs in it, so the therapeutic dose of the active ingredient is going to have a laxative effect in the straight mushroom powder form.

Enter the 15% polysaccharide extract. Lots of chinese suppliers, but NO ONE seems to supply the polysaccharide extract in small quantities. I just heard back from my chinese supplier, and I would have to buy 5 kilos: good price per kilo, but that's overkill.

Bottom Line: I'm at the point where I'm considering the 5 kilo purchase if there are people on this forum who would be interested in buying some after I receive it, say 100g at my cost, which is ~$12.50, depending on what they charge for int'l express shipping on the final invoice, plus my UPS rate, which is good, because I have a UPS account. PM me if you are interested, please. [thumb]

[phernandez]

I now have a major abundance of hericium erinaceus mushroom extract powder standardized to >15% polysaccharide content. (Ethanol + Water Extract). PM me if you are interested. [wis]

[lynx]

Is it standardized to eranicine(sp?)?

[phernandez]

No, this is an Ethanol + Water extract, with at least 15% polysaccharide content. HEP3, a beta-D-glucan, is among the polysaccharides found in hericium erinaceus. This extract does indeed contain those erinacines, but in what quantities, I cannot say, as it would require lab work to know for sure.

I can say that the extract does indeed contain erinacines, as erinacines are isolated from ethanol + water extracts of HE. In the following paper, 1.1kg wet mycelia, after an 85% ethanol extraction, and then an ethyl acetate extraction, 398.7mg of erinacine A, 24.5 mg erinacine B, and 4.9 mg erinacine C.

Erinacines A, B and C, strong stimulators of nerve growth factor (NGF)-synthesis,
from the mycelia of Hericium erinaceum.

Tetrahedron Letters, Vol. 35. No. 10. pp. 1569-1572, 1994

[...]
The fungus was cultivated by shaking at 30°C for 4 weeks. The culture was centrifuged, and the resulting residue (mycelia, wet weight; 1.1 kg) was extracted with 85% ethanol and the extract after evaporating the solvent was partitioned between ethyl acetate and water. Repeated silica gel chromatography and HPLC of the ethyl acetate-extract gave 1 (398.7 mg, mp 74-76degC), 2 (24.5 mg, mp 125-127degC), and 3 (4.9 mg, mp 115-118degC) as white crystals.
[...]

BTW, If you are looking for material on hericium erinaceus, take note that some papers use the spelling "hericium erinaceum".
**Edit: Removed artifacts from copying and pasting from PDF.**

Edited by amenard, 02 May 2007 - 07:22 PM.

[phernandez]

Heya guys.

I do have the hericium extract, but after having sampled it personally I found that it had some deleterious side effects which I found to be pretty bad. Basically, the way my extract was made, I got the straight up water+ethanol extract. Very, very potent stuff. The problem is that along with the brain enhancing chemicals found in this extract are also immune system boosting ingredients. I actually had noticable increase in allergies and immune response after taking it for a short time at (< 1g/day). I started noticing little red specks on my skin. I stopped taking the supplement when I got an ant bite that got inflamed to the point of a swollen bee sting. Ant bites aren't usually even noticable to me, and the fact that this product could turn my immune system on red alert in a matter of days frightened me of the consequences of having distributed a product with such potential. With immune system in an overactive state, one could succumb to a number of autoimmune diseases if the right antibody was produced. A great supplement if you have AIDS, but otherwise I would have to process the extract through a certain solvent if I wished to isolate the erinacines, the brain-enhancing components of the extract. I don't have the expertise to do that at this time, nor the will. I've got 4 kg packs of this fruiting body extract which have been sitting in my freezer since I received it.

Also, note that the potency of this extract may likely be accounted for in the fact that it is a fruiting body extract, and not a mycelium extract, the immature mushroom which many of the papers written about HE extract utilize.

[acujack]

DO YOU STILL HAVE HERICIUM (MONKEY HEAD) FOR SALE
PLEASE LET ME KNOW.
THANK YOU,
JACK acujack@hotmail.com727

Hericium erinaceus, aka Monkey Head Mushroom aka Lion's Mane Mushroom, "Inducer of NGF Synthesis", promising against dementia...

I've taken the mushroom powder for some time, and experienced the benefits, however mild. Funny, it's my 19 y/o dachshund's favorite food for some reason, and it gives him a good boost. My only problem is that the straight mushroom powder, which is available over the internet, has a lot of indigestible carbs in it, so the therapeutic dose of the active ingredient is going to have a laxative effect in the straight mushroom powder form.

Enter the 15% polysaccharide extract. Lots of chinese suppliers, but NO ONE seems to supply the polysaccharide extract in small quantities. I just heard back from my chinese supplier, and I would have to buy 5 kilos: good price per kilo, but that's overkill.

Bottom Line: I'm at the point where I'm considering the 5 kilo purchase if there are people on this forum who would be interested in buying some after I receive it, say 100g at my cost, which is ~$12.50, depending on what they charge for int'l express shipping on the final invoice, plus my UPS rate, which is good, because I have a UPS account. PM me if you are interested, please. [thumb]

[acujack]

DO YOU STILL HAVE HERICIUM (MONKEY HEAD) FOR SALE
PLEASE LET ME KNOW.
THANK YOU,
JACK
acujack@hotmail.com
727 502 5027

Hericium erinaceus, aka Monkey Head Mushroom aka Lion's Mane Mushroom, "Inducer of NGF Synthesis", promising against dementia...

I've taken the mushroom powder for some time, and experienced the benefits, however mild. Funny, it's my 19 y/o dachshund's favorite food for some reason, and it gives him a good boost. My only problem is that the straight mushroom powder, which is available over the internet, has a lot of indigestible carbs in it, so the therapeutic dose of the active ingredient is going to have a laxative effect in the straight mushroom powder form.

Enter the 15% polysaccharide extract. Lots of chinese suppliers, but NO ONE seems to supply the polysaccharide extract in small quantities. I just heard back from my chinese supplier, and I would have to buy 5 kilos: good price per kilo, but that's overkill.

Bottom Line: I'm at the point where I'm considering the 5 kilo purchase if there are people on this forum who would be interested in buying some after I receive it, say 100g at my cost, which is ~$12.50, depending on what they charge for int'l express shipping on the final invoice, plus my UPS rate, which is good, because I have a UPS account. PM me if you are interested, please. [thumb]

[phernandez]

Heya guys. Thought you'd like to hear about a new juicy bit of research investigating the mysterious Lion's Mane mushroom. Seems like previous research was just the tip of the iceberg... there's a lot of important new info regarding fruiting body extract effects in this paper.

This is a freely available journal, give the PDF a look for yourself.

Biological & Pharmaceutical Bulletin
Vol. 31 (2008) , No. 9
Journal Table of Contents

Nerve Growth Factor-Inducing Activity of Hericium erinaceus in 1321N1 Human Astrocytoma Cells Koichiro MORI,a,c Yutaro OBARA,a,b Mitsuru HIROTA,d Yoshihito AZUMI,c Satomi KINUGASA,c Satoshi INATOMI,c and Norimichi NAKAHATA*,a,b a Department of Cellular Signaling, Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Tohoku University; b 21st Century COE Program “CRESCENDO”, Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Tohoku University; Aoba 6–3, Aramaki, Aobaku, Sendai 980–8578, Japan: c Mushroom Laboratory, Hokuto Corporation; 800–8 Shimokomazawa, Nagano 381–0008, Japan: and d Department of Bioscience and Biotechnology, Faculty of Agriculture, Shinshu University; 8304 Minamiminowa, Kami-ina, Nagano 399–4598, Japan.
Received March 24, 2008; accepted June 20, 2008; published online June 23, 2008

So basically the main point, the extract of fruiting body might contain erinacines, which do increase NGF mRNA but the reason for the NGF protein expression seems to enhanced by JNK pathway activation by some as-of-yet unknown derivative, fat soluble, of the ethanol extracts. JNK signalling effects phosphorylation which takes place in the mitochondria.

They were able to get NGF increases from the fruiting bodies, but they concluded it needed to be re-examined... They isolated the water soluble components, the hericenones, thinking there was going to be increased NGF like another study said. Instead they found no effect. Looks like Alcohol+Water extract is the way to go...

Here's a little lazy side note on JNK from Wikipedia:

JNK, by phosphorylation, modifies the activity of numerous proteins that reside at the mitochondria or act in the nucleus. This way, JNK activity regulates several important cellular functions. Inflammatory signals, changes in levels of reactive oxygen species, Ultraviolet radiation, protein synthesis inhibitors, and a variety of stress stimuli can activate JNK. One way this activation may occur is through disruption of the conformation of sensitive protein phosphatase enzymes; specific phosphatases normally inhibit the activity of JNK itself and the activity of proteins linked to JNK activation.[4]

I still feel confident that this substance is not suitable for mass consumption at this time. There are many unknowns as to the long term effects. However, Koichiro chose a human line of astrocytoma in culture to test the NGF producing effects of the alcohol extract of fruiting body with positive effects. The problem I would posit is possibly a bit of neurodegeneration..

Here's what worries me about JNK activation with Lion's Mane administration:

Blockade of c-Jun N-terminal kinase pathway attenuates gentamicin-induced cochlear and vestibular hair cell death.

c-Jun N-terminal kinases trigger both degeneration and neurite outgrowth in primary hippocampal and cortical neurons.

Summarizing, JNKs are involved in both neuritogenesis and death of primary neurons with differentially regulated nuclear translocation of specific isoforms after degenerative stress, while neuritogenesis is supported by all JNK isoforms.

Disclamers/Thoughts/Stacks:

I am not an expert in biochemistry so my comments are minimally informed. I appreciate the forum's lack of blanket endorsements of any supplement. Lion's Mane has been eaten for a long time, as a delicacy for it's unique texture and rich taste, as well as a way to stay sharp. I'd like to think the people who originally noticed its effects (the Chinese of course) were probably not using ultra-concentrated ethanol+water extracts in powder form, the kinds that exist in a few corners on the internet. I don't take Lion's Mane regularly, I have cycled it for days when I was feeling particularly "fuzzy" or whenever I felt like I might become sick. Having quit aspartame altogether as well as fluoridated tap water as well as Instant Tea (~9 times the fluoride of fluoridated tap water due to repeatedly boiling down already fluoridated city water in manufacturing facility in addition to possible natural fluoride in tea) , my perceived mental acuity has increased and so I stick to the simple stuff like fish oil, coq10, b vitamins, magnesium orotate, zinc orotate, soy lecithin (you need it whenever you take any orotate, else your liver will grow in a bad way), l-theanine (for the tea calming effect, since I was a big tea drinker), just started potassium orotate and loving it (my carpal tunnel/hand joint pain disappeared). Oh yea, EXERCISE. For occasional use are holy basil for stressful times, piracetam+alcar rarely for cramming.

Edited by amenard, 04 September 2008 - 09:39 AM.