Many Chinese ancient books say that lentinus edodes ‘will make you feel no hungry’, ‘it can cure palsy and astrictive’. People use it to help produce pocks and hives in curing headache and dazzling.
Lentinus edodes is very valuable as medicine. Its amylase of lentinus edodes and double ribose nucleic acid are very effective in preventing cancer, and can be the medicine for many cancers, including leukaemia. Besides, because it contains gall alkali, adenine, oxidation enzyme and some nucleic acid, it can cure or prevent some diseases of heart and blood vessel and incretion system, even hepatocirrhosis etc.
Modern researches show that lentinus edodes polysaccharide can activate T cells which have immune effect and decrease the cancer caused by methyl gall anthracene. Lentinus edodes is very effective in restraining cancer cells and can restrain 97.5% sarcoma 180 of small rats and 80% A cancer. Lentinus edodes contains double ribose nucleic acid which can help to produce antiferon.