The Anti-Dementia effect of Lion's Mane mushroom and its clinical application - Hericium erinaceum - Lion's Mane

Townsend Letter for Doctors and Patients, April, 2004 by Hirokazu Kawagishi, Cun Zhuang, Ellen Shnidman

Erinacines Isolated from the Mycelium of Lion's Mane

The erinacines were obtained from Lion's Mane as follows. Following 4 weeks in culture, the mycelium was extracted with 85% ethanol. The ethanol extract was concentrated, and then fractionated with ethyl acetate and water. Erinacines A-I were isolated by silica gel column chromatography on HPLC and preparative TLC.

Erinacines A-I are a series of diterpenoids, with different chemical structures from those of the hericenones, that have powerful activities in stimulating NGF synthesis. The activities of erinacines A-G in vitro are shown in Figure 2. As can be seen, all of these compounds are more potent inducers of NGF synthesis than epinephrine. The newly-discovered erinacine H stimulated 31.5 +/- 1.7 pg/ml of NGF secretion into the medium at 33.3 [micro]g/ml concentration, which was five times greater than NGF secretion in the absence of the compound. The erinacines are the most powerful inducers of NGF synthesis among all currently identified natural compounds.

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Clinical Study of Lion's Mane Mushroom on Dementia Patients

Lion's Mane mushroom, therefore, contains at least two types of compounds--the hericenones and erinacines--that strongly stimulate NGF synthesis in vitro. Both of these types of substances, potentially, can cross the blood-brain barrier. The question is, do these substances work when given orally to human patients?

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To answer this question, a study was done in a rehabilitative hospital in the Gunma prefecture in Japan, with 50 patients in an experimental group and 50 patients used as a control. (23) All patients were elderly and suffered from cerebrovascular disease, degenerative orthopedic disease, Parkinson's disease, spinocerebellar degeneration, diabetic neuropathy, spinal cord injury, or disuse syndrome. Seven of the patients in the experimental group suffered from different types of dementia. The patients in this group received 5 g of dried Lion's Mane mushroom per day in their soup for a 6-month period. All patients were evaluated before and after the treatment period for their Functional Independence Measure (FIM), (24), (25) which is a measure of independence in physical capabilities (eating, dressing, walking, etc.) and in perceptual capacities (understanding, communication, memory, etc.).

The results of this preliminary study show that after six months of taking Lion's Mane mushroom, six out of seven dementia patients demonstrated improvements in their perceptual capacities, and all seven had improvements in their overall FIM score (see Figures 3 and 4). A more extensive clinical study is currently underway to further investigate the findings from this small sample.

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The focus of research on medicinal mushrooms until now has been primarily on their anticancer and immune-enhancing properties. The preliminary findings from the studies described above on Lion's Mane mushroom suggest that this mushroom may be a potent inducer of brain tissue regeneration. More research on this subject is clearly needed.