Coriolus Versicolor update

Bob_C

I'm new on these forums and was doing some browsing. Some really great resources here!!
I myself am deeply into medicinal mushrooms and everything related to that. They are used a lot in SE-Asia during cancer treatment but still largely overlooked in the West.

I noticed this forum has already some good information on the Turkey Tail (Coriolus Versicolor), but it is outdated.
So I thought it might be good to provide an update! Since there is no discussion board dealing with Alternative treatments I thought I'd post it here, in the Caregivers section. Correct me if that is wrong!

Many people already know about Krestin, also known as PSK. This Japanese anti-cancer adjuvant (fully ratified) was introduced in 1977 and was during the 80s for some time Japans best selling anti-cancer drug.
Overlooked on this forum is the other variant, PSP, which is also a ratified medicine in China and was introduced in the early 80s.

PSP has been tested many times in large scale clinical trials and proved to be more effective than its predecessor, PSK.

I found this website with a good overview of everything related to PSP:

http://www.yunzhi-psp.com/

This pdf (Cancer Therapy Journal) gives a good overview of both PSK and PSP and their backgrounds:

http://www.oriveda.com/zips/general_review.pdf

This page from the MD Anderson Cancer Center gives a summary of information on PSK and PSP (a bit outdated) :

http://www.mdanderson.org/education-and-research/resources-for-professionals/clinical-tools-and-resources/cimer/therapies/herbal-plant-biologic-therapies/coriolus-versicolor-scientific.html

And this pdf (from Alternative Medicine Review - The Use of Mushroom Glucans and Proteoglycans in Cancer Treatment) gives a very good overview:

http://www.oriveda.com/zips/The Use of Mushroom Glucans and Proteoglycans in Cancer Treatment.pdf


PSP is available as a dietary supplement outside of Asia, unlike Krestin/PSK, which is protected by patents.

There are of course dietary supplements using PSK as a sales pitch ( 'contains PSK/PSP') but IMO this is deceiving.

I would strongly recommend to ask for a Certificate of Analysis to verify the product and its components. I did so many times, and only very few sellers ( JHS/Mushroom science, RNA Canada, Oriveda, Hanoju ) would share this information. The others did not respond at all or stated that it was 'proprietary information' which is of course nonsense - these CoAs only tell you the levels of active ingredients, pesticides and heavy metals. It will also tell you if it is in fact a true mushroom 'extract' - many consumers might not be aware of the fact we cannot digest raw mushrooms at all, so consuming dried and powdered mushroom capsules will not help you. But mushroom powder is very cheap and extracts are expensive, and since most consumers do not know anything about this...

I can give a general recommendation for those interested: if the percentage of actives (polysaccharides/beta-glucans) are not mentioned on the label (instead there are marketing statements like 'contains beta-glucans', 'contains PSK/PSP', 'over 215 phyto-nutrients' etc) do not trust that product. If it was any good, the producer would proudly list the percentage of those ingredients.
Simple logic.