What is lentinan?

Lentinan is a kind of herbal medicine extracted from Lentinus edodes This mushroom is a fungal growth or fruiting body, usually on the bark of a broad-leaved tree, characterized by light purple stems and pleats It is a major component of Asian food and traditional Chinese medicine, often used to strengthen the immune system and reduce cancer symptoms A single glucose unit located in the cell wall of Lentinus edodes constitutes the lentinan molecule It is a kind of water-soluble polysaccharide with triple helix structure The beneficial properties of this molecule are reduced when the polysaccharide structure is deformed (usually by heating) The amount of Lentinan in a single mushroom is very small, and generally has no therapeutic effect It's also hard for cells to absorb polysaccharides because the body metabolizes them quickly This obviously reduces the health effect of cooking mushroom food and oral health products containing mushroom Using concentrated letinous edodes polysaccharides is the best way to get the benefits of this herb The extract is usually made into a solution and injected into the bloodstream to increase cell absorption Intravenous dose is usually 2-10 mg per week, which can be used to treat cancer and AIDS Laboratory research shows that lentinan can reduce the growth of cancer cells and even induce cancer cell death It has also been found that it can enhance the activity of T cells, cytokines, monocytes, tumor necrosis factor and other immune cells Improving the immune response can prevent some bacteria and viruses, such as Staphylococcus aureus and vesicular stomatitis virus It has been reported that there are some side effects in the intravenous injection of lentinan extract The most serious adverse reaction is systemic anaphylaxis, which not only causes severe anaphylaxis, but also reduces granulocytes, a type of white blood cell used to fight infection This often causes chronic bacterial infections of the skin, lungs and throat The increase of liver enzyme in blood is another side effect of lentinan In addition, contact dermatitis is also a mushroom related topic, but usually only involves industrial workers exposed to a large number of mushrooms.