Immunological Activity of Ginseng Is Enhanced by Solid-State Culture with Ganoderma lucidum Mycelium

Research advances in probiotic fermentation of Chinese herbal medicines

Chinese herbal medicines (CHM) have been used to cure diseases for thousands of years. However, the bioactive ingredients of CHM are complex, and some CHM natural products cannot be directly absorbed by humans and animals. Moreover, the contents of most bioactive ingredients in CHM are low, and some natural products are toxic to humans and animals. Fermentation of CHM could enhance CHM bioactivities and decrease the potential toxicities. The compositions and functions of the microorganisms play essential roles in CHM fermentation, which can affect the fermentation metabolites and pharmaceutical activities of the final fermentation products. During CHM fermentation, probiotics not only increase the contents of bioactive natural products, but also are beneficial for the host gut microbiota and immune system. This review summarizes the advantages of fermentation of CHM using probiotics, fermentation techniques, probiotic strains, and future development for CHM fermentation. Cutting-edge microbiome and synthetic biology tools would harness microbial cell factories to produce large amounts of bioactive natural products derived from CHM with low-cost, which would help speed up modern CHM biomanufacturing.

Identification of galacturonic acid-rich polysaccharide with intestinal immune system modulating activity via Peyer's patch from postbiotics of Phellinus linteus mycelial submerged culture

Interests in the development and exploration of industrial applications of medicinal mushrooms as postbiotics have lately increased. We recently reported the potential use of Phellinus linteus mycelial-containing whole culture extract (PLME) prepared by submerged cultivation as a postbiotic that promotes immune system activation. Here, we aimed to isolate and structurally elucidate the active ingredients in PLME by activity-guided fractionation. The intestinal immunostimulatory activity was evaluated by bone marrow (BM) cell proliferation activity and related cytokine production in C3H-HeN mouse-derived Peyer's patch (PP) cells treated with polysaccharide fractions. The initially crude polysaccharide (PLME-CP) of PLME prepared using ethanol precipitation was further fractionated into four fractions (PLME-CP-0 to -III) by anion-exchange column chromatography. BM cell proliferation and cytokine production of PLME-CP-III were significantly improved compared to those of PLME-CP. PLME-CP-III was then fractionated into PLME-CP-III-1 and PLME-CP-III-2 by gel filtration chromatography. Based on the molecular weight distribution, monosaccharide, and glycosyl linkage analyses, PLME-CP-III-1 was revealed as a novel galacturonic acid-rich acidic polysaccharide and further shown to play an important role in facilitating PP-mediated intestinal immunostimulatory activity. This is the first study demonstrating the structural characteristics of a novel intestinal immune system modulating acidic polysaccharide from P. linteus mycelium-containing whole culture broth postbiotics.

Identification of Potential Anticancer Activities of Novel Ganoderma lucidum Extracts Using Gene Expression and Pathway Network Analysis

Ganoderma lucidum (lingzhi) has been used for the general promotion of health in Asia for many centuries. The common method of consumption is to boil lingzhi in water and then drink the liquid. In this study, we examined the potential anticancer activities of G. lucidum submerged in two commonly consumed forms of alcohol in East Asia: malt whiskey and rice wine. The anticancer effect of G. lucidum, using whiskey and rice wine-based extraction methods, has not been previously reported. The growth inhibition of G. lucidum whiskey and rice wine extracts on the prostate cancer cell lines, PC3 and DU145, was determined. Using Affymetrix gene expression assays, several biologically active pathways associated with the anticancer activities of G. lucidum extracts were identified. Using gene expression analysis (real-time polymerase chain reaction [RT-PCR]) and protein analysis (Western blotting), we confirmed the expression of key genes and their associated proteins that were initially identified with Affymetrix gene expression analysis.