Acute Toxicity Study and the In Vitro Cytotoxicity of a Black Lingzhi Medicinal Mushroom, Amauroderma rugosum (Agaricomycetes), from Malaysia

Abstract

Amauroderma rugosum is a wild medicinal mushroom also known as budak cendawan sawan. Members of the indigenous Malaysian Temuan community wear the fresh stipes as a necklace to prevent epileptic seizure and unremitting crying by babies. In our previous studies, A. rugosum exhibited significant antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities. The aim of this study was to determine the toxicity (in the event that a stipe is accidentally bitten) and cytotoxicity of this mushroom on Sprague-Dawley rats and selected cell lines. A. rugosum was orally administered to test chemicals according to Organisation for Economic and Co-operation and Development guidelines (TG 425, adopted October 3, 2008). Blood samples were hematologically and biochemically analyzed and multiple tissue sections from each organ were examined using light microscopy. Cytotoxicity of various A. rugosum extracts was also determined against MCF-7 and A-549 cell lines. Our results showed that oral administration of a single dose of mycelial powder (2000 mg/kg) had no adverse effect on the growth rate or hematological and clinical biochemical parameters. Histological studies showed that the treatments did not induce any pathological changes in the organs of the tested animals. All the treated rats survived beyond the 14-day observation period. Methanol and cold and hot water extracts of the freeze-dried mycelial culture of A. rugosum exhibited no or little cytotoxic effect against the MCF-7 and A-549 cell lines.

A review of the phytochemical and pharmacological properties of Amauroderma rugosum

“…Clinical studies will also be required to validate its therapeutic applications. It has been reported that extracts from the mycelia of AR exhibit low toxicity toward MCF‐7 cancer cells, 42 but those from AR fruiting bodies significantly inhibited their growth 53 . It is, therefore, important to compare different parts of AR (e.g., cap, stem, mycelium, and spores) because they may contain different levels and types of bioactive compounds, hence affecting their potential pharmacological effects and potency.…”

“…Similarly, an aqueous extract of AR did not decrease PC‐12 cell viability at a concentration of 2 mg/ml 14 . An in vivo study found that there was no change in body weight and no pathological changes in different organs in Sprague–Dawley rats receiving a single dose of AR mycelial powder as high as 2 g/kg 42 …”

“…14 An in vivo study found that there was no change in body weight and no pathological changes in different organs in Sprague-Dawley rats receiving a single dose of AR mycelial powder as high as 2 g/kg. 42…”

Comparison of the major chemical constituents and antioxidant effects in Amauroderma rugosum and Ganoderma lucidum

“…Only one publication has reported lipid modulating effects [9], one has reported antioxidant effects [10], one has reported anti-inflammatory effects [8], one has reported morphological assessment [11], one has reported the identification of lignin peroxidase [12], and one has reported nutritional composition [7]. In addition, one report described an acute toxicological study [13] demonstrating that Amauroderma rugosum is biologically safe. In that study, oral administration of a dose of Amauroderma rugosum powder (2000 mg/kg) had no adverse effects on the growth rate or hematological and clinical biochemical parameters in an animal model.…”

Gastroprotective effects of water extract of domesticated Amauroderma rugosum against several gastric ulcer models in rats

“…An acute toxicity assay of A. rugosum indicated that oral administration of a single dose of the powder (2000 mg/kg) had no adverse effect (Fung et al. 2017 ). According to the results of our pre-experiment, the H-WEA, M-WEA and L-WEA groups were treated with 200, 100 and 50 mg/kg WEA (p.o.)…”