Auricularia auricula (Heimuer)

Distribution:
Mainly produced in Heilungjiang, Jilin, Fujian, Taiwan, Hubei, Guangdong, Guangxi, Sichuan, Guizhou, Yunnan provinces of China.
 
Properties (characteristics):
Sweet, neutral

 Channels meridians entered:
Lung, stomach, liver, spleen, kidney, large intestine.
 
 Medical functions:
1. On the blood circulatory system
(1) Anti-clotting effect of using 300% of mu er decoction, 1ml/100g gavage for 20d The experimental results show that the fungus can prolong the kaolin partial thromboplastin time of 12.06s, increased plasma antithrombin III activity, with a significant anticoagulant effect. In vitro experiments on mice, mu er 50mg/kg injection intravenously, intraperitoneal injection, or by gavage , showed significant anticoagulant effect. The polysaccharides of mu er mu er and possess a strong anti-clotting activity.

(2) Anti-platelet aggregation effect: mu er phosphoric acid  buffered saline extract significantly inhibited ADP-induced platelet aggregation in vitro, and blocking those less than 16μmol / L ADP ing  causing  platelets to release of 5 - hydroxytryptamine (serotonin), black The active ingredient of the fungus anti-platelet effect of  is water soluble. Three hours after oral administration of 70g mu er, the   function of the platelets continued to decrease during the 24 hours. Acid extraction of the fungus mycelium (10g/kg in rats intravenously or orally 10g/kg continuous 15 days) in vitro (25mg/ml, 50mg/ml, and 100 mg (mycelia) / ml) significantly inhibited ADP-induced rat platelet aggregation. 5g/kg of the alcohol extract, 7g/kg gavage, a total of 15d, can significantly shorten the erythrocyte electrophoresis time. Using the black fungus acidic heteropolysaccharide on mice by intraperitoneal injection test showed that the polysaccharide could promote the increase of white blood cells. The anti-clotting effect and the reduce the platelet activity increases with the increase of polysaccharide molecular weight and lower alduronic acid content. The biological activity depends on the polysaccharide solubility in water.

(3) Anti-thrombotic: when rabbits were fed polysaccharides 18.5mg/kg,  significantly extended the specificity of thrombosis and fibrin thrombus formation, shortened the length of thrombus, reduced thrombus wet weight and dry weight, reduced the platelet count, lowered platelet adhesion rate and blood viscosity. It could significantly shorten the guinea pig euglobulin lysis time, lower plasma fibrinogen levels, increase fibrinolytic activity. The results show that the polysaccharides have significant antithrombotic effect.

(4) Increase of white blood cell effect: experiment with mice: using intraperitoneal injection of mu er at 2mg /per mouse for 7 days, inhibited Leukopenia induced by cyclophosphamide.

2. Promoting the role of black fungus polysaccharides on immune function can increase mouse spleen index, half of hemolysis values(HC50) and rosette formation rate, and promote macrophage phagocytosis and lymphocyte transformation. 250mg/kg of the fungus mycelium for 7 days the mice by intraperitoneal injection significantly increased peripheral blood T lymphocyte percentage; 400mg/kg 800mg/kg subcutaneous, 7 days, half of hemolysis caused by the cyclophosphamide value HC50 reduce back to normal.

3 Nucleic acid and protein biosynthesis: 100μg of polysaccharide of  mu er can significantly promote human lymphocyte DNA and RNA synthesis. Giving the polysaccharides to mice by intraperitoneal injection of 100mg/kg for 4 days, may have a weak effect of 3 hours leucine incorporation into the serum protein.

4. Hyperlipemia and anti-atherosclerotic effect: using mu er decoction: 30g/kg, continuous gavage 20 days, and with mu er polysaccharides 28mg/kg, and served 8 days, both could significantly reduce hyperlipidemia,  in serum triglyceride (TG ) and serum total cholesterol (TC) content, serum high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) and total cholesterol ratio, and have cholesterol-lowering effect. Polysaccharides 180mg/kg gavage prevents the formation of high cholesterol in mice caused by hypercholesterolemia. While feeding cholesterol daily, also fed mu er  2.5g /per animal, a total of 90 days  lowered the cholesterol in rabbit plasma lipid peroxidation (LPO), thromboxane A2 (TXA2) content, improvement of the prostacyclin / thromboxane A2 ( PGI2/TXA2) ratio, reducing the effect of atherosclerosis.

5. Anti-radiation and anti-inflammatory effects: using mice, by intraperitoneal injection of the polysaccharides 100mg/kg for 7 days, antagonism 60Coγ ray irradiation, the survival rate of mice increased by 1.56 times. Using intraperitoneal injection of 60mg / per rat, reduced the swelling of the sole of the feet caused by egg white. This shows that it possesses anti-inflammatory effect.

6. Anti-ulcer effect: taking  mu er daily 70mg/kg orally, continuously for  2 days, can significantly inhibit the formation of the stress-ulcer. In rats; daily 165mg/kg gavage for 12 days can promote the healing of acetic acid gastric ulcer. It  had no significant effect on gastric acid secretion and pepsin activity.

7. The hypoglycemic effect: using the polysaccharides at 33mg/kg or 100mg/kg orally, can significantly reduce blood glucose levels of alloxan diabetic mice, and oral administration of polysaccharides 4 ~ 7h showed the a significant hypoglycemic effect; and it also reduced the drinking water of diabetic mice.

8. Mu er polysaccharide anti-fertility effect: using 8.25mg/kg on mice by intraperitoneal injection, obviously showed anti-implantation and anti-early pregnancy effect. The termination of second trimester pregnancy effect is slightly less effective, but it had no effect on the fecundity transport.

9. Anticancer, anti-mutagenic effect: using  mu er hot water extract on Swiss mice sarcoma S180, the inhibitory rate was 42.5% to 70%; and the  inhibition rate of Ehrlich ascites carcinoma is 80%. Feeding  mu er polysaccharide 200mg / (kg · d)  for 10 days, countered the effect of  the increase of bone marrow micronucleus rate induced by cyclophosphamide.