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Nutrients
Coriolus versiclor is rich in protein, fat, polysaccharides, peptidoglycan and all glucosan, triterpenes, lignin, multi-amino acid and microelement. The water-extracted protein-bound polysaccharide krestin (PSK) and polysaccharide peptide (PSP) polysaccharides of C. versicolor have immunomodulating and antitumor activity. They are chemically similar but distinguished by fucose in PSK and rhamnose and arabinose in PSP. The polypeptide component contains mostly glutamic and aspartic acids and the polysaccharides contain primarily alpha-1,4 and beta-1,3 glucosidic linkages.
Medicinal use and research
Polysaccharide-K (Krestin, PSK), is a protein-bound polysaccharide isolated from Trametes versicolor, which is used as an immune system boosting agent in the treatment of cancer in some European countries as well as China and Japan. In Japan, PSK is approved as an adjuvant for cancer therapy and is covered by government health insurance.
PSK has documented anticancer activity in vitro, in vivo and in human clinical trials. Research has also demonstrated that the PSK can reduce mutagen-induced, radiation-induced, and spontaneously-induced cancer development. PSK has shown to be beneficial as an adjuvant in the treatment of gastric, esophageal, colorectal, breast and lung cancers. Human clinical trials suggest PSK can reduce cancer recurrence when used as an adjuvant Further in vitro studies have shown that a nutraceutical blend (MC-S) of PSK, lentinan and other fungal extracts can also inhibit cancer cell proliferation.
An in vitro study with PSP demonstrated antiviral activity against human immunodeficiency virus type 1 infection (HIV-1).
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