Possible Therapeutic Benefits:
- Thins the blood
- Prevents cancer in animal
- Lowers blood cholesterol
- Stimulates the immune system
- Inactivates viruses
Facts:
So far few medicinal benefits are linked to the common button mushroom popular in the United States, but Oriental mushrooms contain compounds that can stimulate the immune system, inhibit blood clotting, and retard the development of cancer. The magical four with proven value: shiitake, oyster, enoki, and tree ear, also called wood ear and mo-er.
Japanese scientists have extensively analyzed the medicinal qualities of mushrooms, especailly shiitake, increasinly cultivated and eaten in United States. What makes these mushrooms unusually exciting to scientists is that some possess stimulating or potentiating properties that may strengthen the immune system against not only a variety of infections, but cancer and possibly autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, polyarthritis, and multiple sclerosis.
