Neurohealth Properties ofHericium erinaceusMycelia Enriched with Erinacines

Abstract

Hericium erinaceus, an ideal culinary-medicinal mushroom, has become a well-established candidate in promoting positive brain and nerve health-related activities by inducing the nerve growth factor from its bioactive ingredient. Among its active compounds, only erinacine A has confirmed pharmacological actions in the central nervous system in rats. Hence, this review has summarized the available information on the neurohealth properties of H. erinaceus mycelia enriched with erinacines, which may contribute to further research on the therapeutic roles of these mycelia. The safety of this mushroom has also been discussed. Although it has been difficult to extrapolate the in vivo studies to clinical situations, preclinical studies have shown that there can be improvements in ischemic stroke, Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, and depression if H. erinaceus mycelia enriched with erinacines are included in daily meals.

Potential Antidepressant Effects of Scutellaria baicalensis, Hericium erinaceus and Rhodiola rosea

“…S. baicalensis, H. erinaceus and R. rosea are folk traditional medicinal herbs that gained increasing popularity for their health-promoting properties including antitumor, hepatoprotective, antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, anti-hyperlipidemic, antidiabetic, cardio-protective, neurotrophic and neuroprotective effects [5,10,15,16,35,[37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47]. In the brain, the beneficial effects of each herb are due to different bioactive compounds, some of which are able to cross the blood-brain-barrier (BBB).…”

“…Based on toxicological and clinical studies, S. baicalensis, H. erinaceus and R. rosea are generally considered to be safe and well tolerated [40,[52][53][54][55][56][57][58][59][60][61][62][63]. In experimental studies, the estimated median lethal dose (LD 50 ) of some compounds varies according to the extraction method and administration route [54].…”

“…erinaceus has a prominent effect on neurotrophic factors' induction and modulation of NE system. In detail, H. erinaceus bioactive compounds, especially erinacines and hericones, possesses strong nerve growth factor (NGF)-stimulating properties, showing remarkable neurite outgrowth activities in various cell lines and in dissociated cells of brain, spinal cord, and retina [40,[97][98][99][100][101][102][103][104][105][106][107][108]. In detail, H. erinaceus enhances NGF-mediated neurite outgrowth via activation of the Trk/MEK/ERK and PI3K-Akt signalling pathways [105,106].…”

“…In mice models of chronic corticosterone (CORT)-induced depression, baicalin (40,80, and 160 mg/kg) administered either orally or intragastrically produces anxyolitic-and antidepressant-like effects which are reproduced by the conventional antidepressant fluoxetine [133,134]. In fact, baicalin rescues the behavioral alterations induced by chronic CORT, namely the decreased time spent in the center and non-periphery zone in the open-field test, the increased immobility time in tail suspension test and forced swimming test, as well as the decreased time spent in open arms in the elevated plus maze test [133,134].…”

Improvement of cognitive functions by oral intake of <i>Hericium</i><i> erinaceus </i>

“…Other potent chemicals of HE for the improvement of cognitive functions are erinacines, that also stimulate NGF synthesis in vitro and in CNS (9,20,(23)(24)(25)35). Total chemical synthesis of both hericenones and erinacines has been studied (22), then we could obtain a few kinds of these chemicals,…”