Mushrooms for Health: Medicinal Secrets of Northeastern Fungi

by Greg Marley

Overview

There is a burgeoning interest in natural medicines in the United States. Among these natural health powerhouses are mushrooms, and here mycologist Greg Marley introduces ten species found in New England-and elsewhere, too, in many cases. Marley describes where to find and how to prepare these fungi and lists their health-supporting benefits. On a comforting note, Marley says there are no poisonous look-alikes for any of these beneficial fungi!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780892729012
Publisher:	Down East Books
Publication date:	10/01/2009
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	112
Sales rank:	737,135
File size:	8 MB

About the Author

Greg Marley, of Rockland, Maine has studied mushrooms for more than 30 years. He has a B.S. in Botany with a minor in Chemistry and a focus on plant taxonomy and ecology, and he is a volunteer consultant for the Northern New England Poison Control Center and various hospital emergency rooms for cases involving mushroom ingestion and identification. He also cultivates edible and medicinal mushrooms and provides wild edible mushrooms to professional chefs.

Table of Contents

Introduction 4

How to Use This Book 7

What Is a Mushroom? 13

Mushrooms and Our Health 19

Our Immune System and How It Works 23

The Medicinal Components of Mushrooms 30

Mushrooms as Functional Food 40

Medicinal Mushroom Species 44

Table: Northeastern Medicinal Mushrooms and Their Uses 45

Reishi Ganoderma tsugae G. lucidum 46

Maitake Grifola frondosa 55

Turkey Tail Trametes versicolor 64

Oyster Mushroom Pleurotus ostreatus P. populinus 88

Chaga Inonotus obliquus 94

Lion's Mane and Comb Tooth Hericium erinaceus H. americanum H. coralloides 102

Birch Polypore Piptoporus betulinus 108

Artist's Conk Ganoderma applanatum 112

Red-belted Polypore Fomitopsis Pinicola 116

Tinder Conk Fomes fomentarius 120

Appendixes

Making a Double Extraction Mushroom Tincture 125

Glossary 130

References 133

Index 138