Shogun Maitake is a Canadian company partnering with University of Windsor researchers to investigate if the black maitake mushroom could help treat cancer or ease negative reactions to chemotherapy. According to Siyiram Pandey, the team’s research lead and a chemistry professor at the University of Windsor, the outlook is really promising: “It is not only killing a specific cancer, it seems to be active on many cancers.”
The team is running tests with maitake extract, a dark, odorless liquid provided by Shogun Maitake, which sells maitake mushrooms. In early trials, the extract killed 70% of cancer cells, Pandey said. That’s 10% more effective than taxol and cisplatin, two of the most popular chemotherapy drugs. And it has fewer extreme side effects, he said.
The team recently received a two-year, $60,000 grant from Mitacs, a Canadian nonprofit research organization, to investigate the mushroom’s effect on cancer cells and chemotherapy. If the lab’s findings are confirmed, cancer patients could one day take an oral maitake supplement to fight the disease.
Still, the road to proving if maitake mushroom can fight cancer is long and paved with more research and more funding.
Source: greatlakesecho.org