• Food Science and Biotechnology
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.739-745
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• 2006

Changes in the levels of analytes in the blood and urine of a rodent animal model were taken as a measure of the hypoglycemic effects of a diet containing fermented chaga mushroom. These studies were conducted using the genetically manipulated diabetic Otsuka Long-Evans Tokushima Fatty (OLETF) rat. The effects of 8-week long diets that included either fermented (FCM) or non-fermented (CM) chaga mushroom powder (5% in the diet) on the OLETF rat were compared to the normal diet fed OLETF rat and the non-diabetic Long-Evans Tokushima Otsuka (LETO) rat. Hypoglycemia was tracked by measuring serum and urine concentrations of glucose, insulin, fructosamine, and leptin. Serum and urine levels of glucose, fructosamine, and leptin in the OLETF rats were higher than in LETO rats when fed normal diets but insulin levels did not differ between the two animal groups. The FCM rats were characterized by dramatically low levels of serum glucose and leptin in the OLETF rats whereas the levels of fructosamine and urine glucose trended lower in response to FCM. The serum leptin level in the CM-fed OLETF rat was also lower than that in the normal diet fed OLETF control. Serum concentrations of insulin in the OLETF rats were higher following FCM or CM feeding compared to the normal diet. These observations imply that (a) a dietary supplement of fermented chaga mushroom may contribute to a hypoglycemic effect in the OLETF rat, and (b) the increased blood insulin concentration following 8 weeks of an FCM diet may be important to the noted improvement in hyperglycemia.

• The Korean Journal of Mycology
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• v.45 no.3
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• pp.241-245
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• 2017

Chaga mushroom (Inonotus obliquus), which has invaluable medicinal uses, grows only on living trees. To date, it is still harvested from its natural habitat and is not cultivated artificially. We artificially cultivated chaga mushrooms by inoculating its sawdust spawns on Betula platyphylla var. japonica in 2007, and monitored mushroom growth on the inoculated trees for 9 years. The mushrooms grew less than 1 cm per year, with the largest mushroom growing up to 9 cm in the 9 years of study. There was no difference in the growth (diameter at breast height) of trees with viable and non-viable I. obliquus. In conclusion, artificial cultivation of chaga mushroom was successful. Our findings suggest that selection of large B. platyphylla var. japonica as host tree could lead to better I. obliquus productivity. Further improvements of the method are needed to increase the success rate of I. obliquus inoculation.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.42 no.1
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• pp.5-13
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• 2009

Mushrooms have become a largely untapped source of powerful new pharmaceutical products that poses anti-inflammatory, and antimutagenic, and antioxidant activities. The antioxidant effects of the mushroom may be partly explained by protecting cellular components against free radical. The aim of this study was to investigate the protective effect of chaga mushroom against diabetes, via the mitigation of oxidative stress and reduction of blood glucose, in streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats. Rats were rendered diabetic by intravenous administration of STZ through tail at a dose of 50 mg/kg. Animals were allocated into four groups with 8 rats each. The control and diabetic control group were fed with standard rat feed. The other diabeic groups, the low chaga extract group and the high chaga extract group were fed ad libitum using 0.5 g/kg and 5 g/kg of chaga mushroom extract, respectively, for 4 weeks. The blood glucose levels in the two chaga extract groups showed a tendency to decrease but did not reach statistical significance after the supplementation. Leukocyte DNA damage, expressed as tail length, was found to be significantly lower in the high chaga extract group than in the diabetic control group (p > 0.05). Plasma level of total radical-trapping antioxidant potential (TRAP) was tend to be higher in the high chaga extract group compared with the diabetic control group. Erythrocyte antioxidant enzyme activities of two groups did not differ. Although we did not obtain beneficial effect on lowering blood glucose levels in the STZ-induced diabetic rats, this results suggest that the chaga mushroom extracts may initially act on protecting endogenous DNA damage in the short-term experiment.

• Applied Microscopy
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.125-132
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• 2009

Extracts and fractions of Inonotus obliquus (Chaga in Russia) have been known to have various biological activities, including antimutagenic, anticancer, antioxidative, and immunostimulating effects. This study was performed to confirm anticancer effect of 10% superfine Chaga mushroom processed by nano-mill technology on C57BL/6 mice. Chaga particles belonged in the size of 1 ${\mu}m$ was about 40% after nanomill processing according to the volume distribution. As the result of subcutaneous injection of B16BL6 melanoma cells to the mice, the tumor volume (p<0.001) and tumor weight (p<0.01) was significantly decreased in the experimental (NCh) group as compared with control (C) group and the tumor growth inhibitory rate was 29.2%. On examination of survival rate after intraperitoneal injection of B16BL6 melanoma cells, the mean survival time per a mouse was 17.7 and 26.0 days in C and NCh group respectively. The survival rate of NCh group was 40% when that of C group was 0% at the 35th day. On the result of examination to confirm histological toxicity by Chaga superfine particles, both groups did not show any morphological and pathological changes in the small and large intestine under the light microscope. These results suggest that feeding of superfine Chaga produced by nanomill technique has a tumor growth inhibitory effect in vivo.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Life Science Conference
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• 2006.09a
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• pp.100.1-100.1
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• 2006

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.633-640
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• 2004

This study was performed to investigate the cytotoxic effect of the water-extract from Chaga mushroom (Inonotus obliquus) compositions containing powdered green tea in HCT-15 human colon carcinoma, AGS human gastric carcinoma and NIH3T3 mouse normal fibroblast cells using viable cell count and MTT assay. The water-extract from Chaga mushroom compositions induced inhibitory effects on proliferation of HCT-15 and AGS cells in the MTT assay and viable cell count. However, mouse normal NIH3T3 cells were exhibited 80% survival under the same condition. Chaga mushroom compositions showed highly antiproliferative effect in human cancer cell line HCT-15 and AGS, but not in mouse normal cell line NIH3T3. These results suggest that Chaga mushroom (Inonotus obliquus) compositions containing powdered green tea are the candidate for chemoprevention in colon and gastric cancer.

• The Journal of Korean Medicine
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.1-12
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• 2009

Objectives: This study was to investigate the anti-oxidation and anti-cancer activity of Chaga mushroom extract. Extraction condition optimization and beta-glucan analysis and anti-cancer activity tests were also done. Methods: Optimum extraction conditions for Chaga mushroom extract were at a temperature of $90^{\circ}C$ and 2hrs with 10 times of water. Extraction yield and economics were best under these conditions. Results: Anti-oxidation activity was the highest with the fraction of 100,000 MWCO and $IC_{50}$ value was $13{\mu}g/ml$ and this value was comparable to that of vitamin E, alpha-tocopherol. Among the fractions from various organic solvents, ethyl acetate fraction showed the highest anti-oxidation activity with $IC_{50}$ value of $7{\mu}g/ml$. For anti-cancer activity, chloroform fraction showed little anti-cancer activity and ethyl acetate fraction showed the best anti-cancer activity with $IC_{50}$ $1.5{\mu}g/ml$ for stomach cancer cells. Anti-cancer activities for different molecular weight fractions were the best in the fraction of molecular weight less than 100,000Da, and $IC_{50}$ values for stomach cancer cells and liver cancer cells were 1.7 and $1.4{\mu}g/ml$, respectively. Conclusions: From these results, we can conclude that the extract of Chaga mushroom could be a good source for functional food and natural anti-cancer medicine.

• Journal of Radiation Industry
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.35-39
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• 2011

This study was investigated the effect of tumor cell cytotoxicity of gamma irradiated Chaga mushroom extract (CME). CME was prepared by hot water extraction at $70^{\circ}C$ for 4 hours and lyophilized. $Ten\;mg\;ml^{-1}$ of lyophilized CME powder was dissolved with deionized water and then irradiated at the doses of 10, 50, 100, and 150kGy by cobalt 60 gamma irradiator. The gamma-irradiated and non-irradiated CME were treated into the cancer cell, including human stomach cancer and human colon cancer. Cytotoxicity against the cancer cell was increased in gamma-irradiated CME and antioxidant activity was also increased in gamma-irradiated CME, as irradiation dose increased. Therefore, it was considered that gamma irradiation was effective method for improvement of the cancer cell cytotoxicity and antioxidant activity of Chaga mushroom extract.

• Journal of Radiation Industry
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.169-173
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• 2011

This study investigated the effect of gamma irradiation on immune enhancing activity of Chaga mushroom extract (CME). CME was prepared by hot water extraction at $70^{\circ}C$ for 4 hours and lyophilized. Lyophilized CME powder was dissolved with deionized water at $10mg\;ml^{-1}$ and then irradiated at the doses of 10, 30 and 50 kGy by cobalt 60 gamma irradiator. The gamma-irradiated and non-irradiated CME were treated into the splenocyte separated from mouse. Cell proliferation and cytokine production of the immune cells were increased by gamma-irradiated CME and these increases were more prominent when CME was irradiated at higher doses. Therefore, it is considered that gamma irradiation can be an effective method for improvement of the immunomodulating activity Chaga mushroom extract.

• Proceedings of the Plant Resources Society of Korea Conference
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• 2019.04a
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• pp.97-97
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• 2019

Chaga mushroom and Cheonggukjang have been used in alternative medicine. In this study, we determined the anti-obesity effects of fermented Chaga-Cheonggukjang (FCC), an extract prepared by secondary fermentation of a mixture of Cheonggukjang and Chaga by Lactobacillus acidophilus on highfat diet (HFD)-induced mice. Male ICR mice were fed a normal diet or HFD in the presence or absence of 3% and 5% FCC (FCC3 and FCC5). After 3 months, the mice were sacrificed, and serum and tissue samples were examined. Body weight and epididymal fat pad (EFP) weight were significantly lowered in FCC3 and FCC5 groups compared to those in the HFD control group. FCC supplementation suppressed serum triglyceride (TG) and increased serum HDL levels. Serum GOT, GPT, leptin levels and hepatic COX-2 mRNA expression were significantly higher in the HFD groups, and these increases were significantly attenuated by FCC supplementation. FCC suppressed body weight and EFP weight gain, as well as inflammatory responses in the liver in HFD-fed mice. Thus, FCC supplementation may have protective effects for obesity-related disease.